Mai HiME Reloaded
by PerditaX
Summary: Mai HiME the Fake Movie inspired fic... sort of. Slightly AUish. The Obsidian Lord was defeated and our HiMEs lived happily ever after. Wait... that wasn't the end...
1. The Story Continues

This fic is inspired by the fake movie trailer, but the connection's rather weak. When I started this (a long long time ago, in a galaxy far away), the DVD with the trailer had not been released and all there was, was the advertisement in the products section of the official Mai Otome site which featured four screenshots from the trailer - four screenshots, and that's virtually the whole connection between the trailer and this fic. So please don't expect too many similarities with the trailer.

It will be a bit AU-ish here and there and maybe also over there, but I'm trying to make it consistent with the anime in most parts.

And the obligatory disclaimer: Mai-HiME/Mai-Otome belong to Sunrise.

* * *

_"What is past, is prologue. ... What is past, is also sometimes the future." -- Delenn, Babylon 5 Episode 3.22 Z'ha'dum_

* * *

Chapter 1  
**The Story Continues**

They were everywhere. No matter in which direction she looked - there was no chance to escape. She was floating in space, surrounded by dozens of little satellites, all of them miniature versions of Artemis, Alyssa's Child. Mai ducked just in time to dodge the attacking satellite. She activated her Element and blocked a second one with a fire shield.

"Kagutsuchi!"

No Kagutsuchi.

"Kagutsuchi!"

Where was her Child when she needed it? Mai frowned and concentrated on creating a sphere of fire around her. She smirked. The satellites were now attacking in groups but didn't have the slightest chance against her shield. They bounced off the fire sphere and tottered helplessly in space before they were able to stabilise and attack again.

"Kaguts-"

_Something smells weird... burnt..._ Mai looked around and saw with horror that the ends of her scarf were on fire. _Since when do I wear a scarf?_

There was a red scarf around her neck, its ends dangling in the blazing walls of the sphere. Petrified, Mai watched the flames devouring the wool, coming closer at an incredible speed. The burnt smell was unbearable now. She finally regained control over her limbs and grabbed at the scarf, trying to pull it off, but to no avail. She panicked. The more she pulled the more tightened the scarf around her neck. The fire spread to her hands. In a split second her hair was ablaze and she saw the flames dancing right in front of her eyes. Mai screamed.

"AAAAAAAH!" Mai gasped for breath, her heart beating like mad. She looked around, slowly realising that she wasn't in space burning to death but sitting bolt upright in her bed.

Natsuki stood in the kitchenette, startled looking at her.

"Mai..." A perplexed Mikoto sat on the floor next to Mai's bed, rubbing her back.

Mai slightly shook her head. _A dream... just a dream..._ She sniffed. _Why does it still smell burnt?_

"Sorry... I burnt my toast." Natsuki smiled sheepishly and picked up the pitch black piece of toast she had dropped at Mai's scream. "You just scared the hell out of me... bad dreams?"

"Yeah... Mikoto? Are you ok?" _I must have kicked her out of the bed._

"Yup!" Mikoto had recovered from the unintended contact with the floor and jumped at Mai, knocking her over. "Let's have breakfast!"

Mai smiled and ran her hand through Mikoto's tousled hair. "Yeah..." She looked at Natsuki, who was opening a window to let some fresh air in. "I better make breakfast before Natsuki has turned our room into a smokehouse."

Natsuki knitted her brows and mumbled something incomprehensible.

÷÷÷÷÷

One hour later, they were all on their way to the school building. Today was the first day of the new school year. One year ago, she and Mikoto had arrived in a truly spectacular way at Fuuka Academy. Today, everything was normal. No burnt trail across the school grounds, no mysterious circle on the grass in front of the school. Everything perfectly normal.

"Mai-chan!" Chie and Aoi were standing next to the school entrance, waving.

Yes, this year, she would be a normal high school girl, doing things normal high school girls do. Definitely.  
Mai waved back and sped up, tugging Natsuki and Mikoto along.

÷÷÷÷÷

When Mikoto walked into her classroom, Sakomizu-sensei was already standing behind his desk. Next to him an unknown girl, writing something onto the blackboard, probably her name. Mikoto took her seat and watched the new girl curiously. She was about her height and had long auburn hair which was tied up at the back of her head and plaited into two braids. The girl finished writing and turned around. Mikoto could now see that she had turquoise eyes.

The bell rang.

"Good morning." Sakomizu-sensei beamed at the class.

"Good morning," echoed the students.

"I hope you all had restful holidays so that we can now start refreshed and full of energy into the new school year. But first we will welcome our new transfer student." He nodded encouragingly to the new girl.

"My name is Yumemiya Arika. Nice to meet you all."

÷÷÷÷÷

Natsuki stared out of the window. Outside the sun was shining, it was beautiful weather, perfect for a trip with the motorbike. And she was inside, sitting in the classroom and listening to lectures on English literature. Scowling, she kicked at her bag. She had already spent the whole holidays with learning to get transfered to the next grade. Her resentment vanished as fast as it had come, giving way to feelings of guilt. _Shizuru didn't have holidays either._ Hardly a day had passed without her coming over and tutoring Natsuki. One week ago, her university semester had started, since then Natsuki had not heard anything from her.

_What could she be doing right now?_ Natsuki smiled. _She's probably sitting in a lecture hall, drinking tea and..._

"Ms Kuga, would you please pay attention!"

Ms Graceburt's stern voice jerked Natsuki out of her thoughts. The elderly woman was glaring at her.

"I won't tolerate slacking off in my classes. You will write a summary of chapter one and give it to me tomorrow. And now read the next part, page five, second paragraph."

Natsuki gulped and slowly started reading. Their new English teacher did not only have the looks but also the character of Cinderella's stepmom.

÷÷÷÷÷

"So, what we gonna do with the rest of the day?" asked Chie.

School was finally over and they were idly standing in the classroom.

"I have to work."

"Ok, we'll go to the Linden Baum and keep Mai company."

Aoi nodded in approval.

"It's kendo for me," said Yuuichi. He put his arms around Mai and kissed her. "I'll drop by later."

Mai nodded and kissed him back.

"Natsuki?"

"Some other time, I already have plans." She had finished packing her bag and went to the door. "Bye!"

Natsuki walked out of the classroom. She felt an impact and found herself lying on the floor, half buried under some girl.

"Are you ok?" Mikoto's worried face appeared above her.

Mai, Yuuichi, Chie and Aoi came rushing out of the classroom.

"Everything alright?"  
"Whoa, that was quite a crash!"  
"Are you hurt?"

The girl on top of Natsuki was moving. She looked at Natsuki and jumped up hastily. "Sorry... I'm so sorry... are you ok?" She held her hand out to Natsuki.

Natsuki took the girl's hand and slowly got up. "I'm fine... I think." Her hip hurt. Her shoulder, too.

"Where does it hurt?" Mai instantly knew.

"Hip, shoulder... nothing bad, really."

"You should let Sagisawa-sensei take a look at it."

"No, I'm fine."

The others didn't look very convinced.

"Really, it's nothing... Hey! Let go of me!"

Yuuichi had grabbed her from behind and Mai and Chie were each holding a leg of hers.

"No way, you're coming to the infirmary with us," said Mai.

"Put me down! Now! I don't need a doctor!"

They ignored Natsuki's screams and moved off.

Aoi picked up their school bags and followed them together with Mikoto and the other girl. "And you're alright?" she asked the girl.

"Yeah... oh... I'm Arika, Yumemiya Arika."

"She's in my class," added Mikoto.

"Nice to meet you, my name's Senou Aoi."

÷÷÷÷÷

The large bruise on her hip-bone was shining in violet and blue. Natsuki carefully applied the ointment Sagisawa-sensei had given her and tried to ignore the stabbing pain that shot through her hip when she touched it. It would take some time for the bruises to go away. But she was glad that it weren't serious injuries, something like a broken shoulder was the last thing she needed.

She cursed and zipped up her bike suit. She was late. And all because Mikoto and that Arinko girl had turned the school into a race track. Sagisawa-sensei's flabbergasted expression when the weird procession with her screaming and kicking self had arrived at the infirmary made up for it though.

She rummaged in the pile of junk under her bed. _Must be here... somewhere..._

The pile under her bed became smaller and smaller, the one in front of it larger and larger but her spare helmet was nowhere to be found.

_I could swear I've seen... Ah!_ Natsuki smiled triumphantly. _Right, Mai put it into the wardrobe "where it belongs"._

She found the old helmet in a corner at the back. Natsuki snatched the other helmet from her bed and rushed out of the room.

She rushed in again, dropped the helmets onto the bed, pushed the pile of junk in front of it back under it, picked up the helmets and ran out again.

÷÷÷÷÷

She was already there, leaning against Natsuki's motorbike and typing on her cell phone, seemingly oblivious to her surroundings.

"You're late," said Nao without looking up.

"Sorry."

Nao finished typing and took the helmet Natsuki offered her. Then they both got onto the bike and rode off.

A quarter of an hour later, they had reached their destination. Natsuki parked the motorbike in front of the apartment building and they walked inside. After a short ride with the elevator, they were standing in a low-lit corridor. Natsuki went ahead and opened the door to her apartment.

"Go inside, I'll get the stuff from the cellar."

Nao just nodded and entered the apartment.

Light was flooding through newly inserted windows. Where once the remains of broken furniture and a jungle of cobwebs had been was now emptiness, the apartment had been cleared and spring-cleaned. Yet Nao couldn't shake off a feeling of uneasiness as she was walking across the room. Memories came rushing back and she could almost hear the sound of crushed debris when her feet touched the ground. Cobwebs were slightly moving in the draft coming from the broken windows.

Nao tried to chase away the images in her head. She leaned against the windwow frame and looked outside. She could see the roof of the opposite building. It was the roof where Julia had been crushed by Kiyohime's jaws. The roof where she had broken down after losing her mother. The roof where Natsuki had placed herself between her and a completely insane Shizuru.

"Something interesting out there?" Natsuki suddenly stood beside her, following her gaze.

Nao shook her head and turned away from the window.

"Fine, we can start then," said Natsuki and put a paint roller into Nao's hand. "You'll do this part."

"Hm." Nao picked up the remaining paint bucket and walked slowly to the wall Natsuki had pointed at. The other girl was already painting the corners. Nao dipped the paint roller into the paint and ran it over the roller frame, watching the excessive paint dripping off. _I can't believe I'm actually doing this..._

_"Why me? Ask someone else!"  
"You destroyed it, it's only fair if you help fixing it!"_

"Hey! Stop dreaming, I wanna get this finished _today_." Natsuki moved on to the next corner.

"You're the one who was late."

"Oh shut up..."

Nao grinned and started painting.

÷÷÷÷÷

"We hope to see you again," shouted Akane when the last customers were leaving.

She continued wiping the tables. It had been very busy throughout the afternoon and into the early evening hours. Many of her schoolmates had visited the Linden Baum to recover from the stress of the first school day. It was closing time now and also the end of her shift, only a bit of cleaning here and there was left.

Kazuya looked up from cleaning the counter and smiled at her. Akane smiled back. They were now always taking shifts together. No, they _were_ together. After the nightmare of the HiME Festival they had declared their undying love for each other and were inseparable ever since.

She realised that she was still staring at him and quickly continued with cleaning.

Finally, everything was done and Akane headed towards the dressing rooms. She met Kazuya in the corridor, he had finished his part of the cleanup earlier and had already changed into his own clothes.

"I'll wait outside," he said and she nodded, entering the women's dressing room.

She got her stuff out of the locker and rashly changed into her school uniform. When she laced her shoes, she noticed a notepad at the bottom of the vacant locker below hers. She picked it up.

_That's Mai's... she must have lost it earlier._

She put the notepad into her bag, she would give it to Mai at school tomorrow.

Finished, she left the dressing room and said goodbye to the manager before leaving the restaurant.

Kazuya was standing a few steps away from the entrance. He greeted Akane with a smile when she came out and took her hand. Akane kissed him briefly and they set off.

--

The lights were red.

Akane let her gaze wander over the surrounding buildings and then up to the sky. But as expected, here in the city with all its lights and neon signs, she couldn't make out any stars at the firmament. She loved watching the stars. She had often been sitting at the window of her dorm room at night, looking at the sky. That had changed at some time last year when the starry sky had always reduced to the red one hovering right below the moon. Her gaze was now lingering on the LED ticker of an office building across the street.

_00:37, 18.6°C..._

Akane's heart stood still. Diagonally left to the ticker, on the roof of the adjacent building, there was a well-known figure silhouetted against the night sky.

_Can't be... he..._

She felt a sudden pull at her arm and almost tripped.

"Akane?"

The lights were green.

She looked at the roof again, it was empty.

"Akane? What's up? You look as if you've seen a ghost."

_I did._ "Nothing... I... I'm just a bit tired, that's all. Let's go."

It was just her imagination, right? She was tired and seeing things that weren't there.

Kazuya looked worried but didn't press her further. They hurried to cross the street before the lights would turn red again.

Akane glanced back at the roof. Nothing.


	2. Opening: King's Pawn

Chapter 2  
**Opening: King's Pawn**

The hall was filled with the soft and constant sound of many computers and the sporadic beeping and humming of other machines. The only living being was the man sitting in front of one the few work stations, impatiently drumming his fingers on the desk. Kenji Ichikawa didn't have much time and it seemed to him as if it took ages for the data to transfer from his USB stick to the server. The computers here weren't connected to the intranet for security reasons, the sneakernet was the only way to transport the files. That they were encrypted and had now to be decrypted slowed everything down. He glanced at his watch. _30 minutes left..._

The copying process had finally finished. He brushed a strand of his black hair out of his face and started typing. He imported the new values into the database and initiated the process that would update the blueprints for the genes they used to produce their Valkyries. Then he unmounted his USB stick and attached it to his key chain. After logging out, he quickly moved towards the big door of the machine hall.

He pressed the back of his right hand against the scanner in the wall next to the door. A short feeling of warmth when the infrared sensor of the scanner ran over his hand to extract the vascular pattern. A beep and the door opened. He stepped through, turned right and walked down the empty corridor. He passed another door, greeted a guard on his patrol, and shortly after, he had reached the door leading out of the security wing. The office wing behind was deserted, it was way past the usual working hours.

After a journey that had led him through more deserted corridors and hallways, he arrived at his office. He sat down in front of his computer and unlocked the session. He stared at the results of the last spectral analysis again, but soon his mind drifted off. It was that time of year...

He opened the picture. It was the only one he had kept. Summer, the beach, the old clique from college, no indication that they were close. He remembered that day as if it had only been yesterday. The two of them walking along the water line. The wind playing with her long brown hair. The shining in her eyes when she looked at him. The thin film of sand on her skin. Her soft lips on his own...

It knocked at the door.

He twitched and quickly closed the picture. "Come in!"

The door opened and Olivier Lacombe's head popped in. "Departure in ten minutes." The redheaded Frenchman stepped slightly ducked into the office and straightened up to his proud height of 1.97 m. "Lilah's already fetching the samples." He pushed his glasses up and came closer to look at Kenji's screen. "Still at it?"

"Hm." Kenji waved his hand towards the screen. "It differs again from the last one. There seems to be a resemblance between yesterday's and one from 120 years ago but that might be a coincidence, the old data is annoyingly vague. Not that the recent is that much better."

"We will soon have better data to work with again, I got a new report today, Eclipse 2 is almost completed. But now it's about time to go."

"Alright, I'm getting my stuff... one minute... ok?"

He waited until Olivier had left. Then he set the access time of the picture back to its old date and removed the command from the history.

÷÷÷÷÷

John Smith watched the black BMW sedan drive through the gateway and into the courtyard of the large office complex. It halted in one of the parking lots opposite to the gate. The passenger door opened and a young, sporty looking man with middle length black hair got out. He briefly nodded into Smith's direction and then went to the the tall, slender woman with shoulder length brown hair who had come out of the left rear door and was now opening the trunk. She pulled out a titan case and stepped aside. The dark haired man took out a second case and closed the trunk. In the meantime, the driver of the BMW, a huge man with short red hair and glasses, had gotten out and walked around the car to his companions. Together they headed towards the entrance.

"Good evening," Smith greeted the arrivals. "I'm John Smith, Head of the Fourth Publicity Sector here. And this is our chief technology officer, Kurt Thomsen." He pointed to the tall blonde man next to him.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Olivier Lacombe, Representative Head of the Second GEP Research Department, and these are my colleagues Lilah Morgendorffer and Kenji Ichikawa."

They shook hands and then went inside the building.

"I suggest Mr Lacombe and I betake ourselves to the meeting room while Ms Morgendorffer and Mr Ichikawa accompany Mr Thomsen to the laboratory," said Smith, whereupon the group dispersed.

Olivier walked with Smith across the entrance hall while Lilah and Kenji followed Thomsen to the elevator. They stepped inside and the latter pressed the button for the second basement, where the lab was.

It wasn't the first time Lilah visited this building. The Fourth Publicity Sector had often been assigned with field tests in the past. Back then someone else had been in charge. At SEARRS, you could get promoted fast, but you could get axed off even faster.

The door of the elevator glided open again and revealed a broad corridor illuminated by a row of neon lights on each side, where the metallic grey fire protection panels on the walls met the plain stone ceiling. They went along the corridor, towards the fork at which they would have to turn left to get to the door leading to the lab. Apart from a soft electronic humming the clicking of her heels on the cobbled floor and the more quiet footsteps of the two men were the only sounds to be heard.

When Lilah turned around the corner, she was suddenly blinded by a glaring light.

--

The thick, slate coloured carpet in the corridor absorbed the sound of their steps as Olivier followed Smith to the meeting room. The bright interior of the upper floors was of an unostentatious elegance, conveying the impression of a successful, reputable company. What SEARRS was, to those who did not know.

The meeting room was dominated by a large mahogany table. "Please sit down," said Smith, pointing to the leather chairs. He then took a seat at the head of the table and Olivier sat down to his right.

"We plan to run the tests the day after tomorrow, you should have the results by the end of the week then. As agreed, the first one will be in the Land of Fuuka, and if that goes well, we will gradually increase the distance to the star's centre of power," said Smith.

Olivier nodded. "Three runs, each with an increase of the radius by 100km, will be sufficient for starters."

"How's the progress on the new Yggdrasil Unit?"

"Slow. We're still trying to restore the data from old backups. Joseph Greer did a good job," said Olivier sarcastically. "But if the anti-materialiser meets our expectations, we'll be a good deal further."

"That is good to hear. We-" His cell phone rang. Smith looked with wrinkled brows at the caller id and then stood up. "Please excuse me for a minute," he said and left the room.

--

Lilah slowly regained consciousness and sat up. Her eyes darted around, searching. The cases were gone. From the corner of her eye she saw Kenji starting to move as she jumped up. She ran towards the door of the lab, snatched the emergency hammer off the wall, smashed the glass pane covering the little cavity next to it and slammed the panic button behind.

÷÷÷÷÷

Nao was walking along the path to the church. It was early in the morning, there were still dew drops on the grass at the wayside and the air smelled fresh and unconsumed. Yet Nao had to yawn. She was used to getting up so early but it had gotten late yesterday. After they had painted the walls of Natsuki's apartment, they had torn out the carpet and laid a new one, the old one had been draggled beyond help, courtesy of Julia.

A figure came walking towards her. When she came nearer, Nao recognised Ms Graceburt, the new English teacher. She briefly nodded when she walked past her and let her thoughts wander again.

All in all, yesterday had not been as bad as she had expected. They didn't bicker as much as usual, maybe the monotonous, calmative work of painting had caused the almost peaceful atmosphere. They had barely talked the whole time, a fact Nao was glad about. She still felt a bit uneasy around the dark-haired girl, after all she had done to her. She had never thanked her, but that Natsuki had stood up for her had impressed her more than she would ever admit. Natsuki had said they were the same but Nao knew this wasn't true. Natsuki was hard on the outside and soft inside. Nao was hard on the outside and numb inside. While Natsuki was walking in the light, she herself was walking in the dark. She had done things the other girl would never be capable of. Did being loved really make such a difference? Nao wasn't sure, she couldn't remember how it was to be loved.

She had reached the church and entered the vestry.

"Good morning, Alyssa."

"Good morning, Nao." Alyssa smiled.

"Where's Miyu?" Nao questioningly looked around.

"Outside, picking new flowers for the altar."

"Negative," said Miyu as she walked in, holding a bunch of flowers in her hand.

The morning prayer would soon start. They didn't have a new pastor yet but that didn't really matter, Joseph Greer had not been a pastor either and Miyu had always generated the liturgy. A lot of people were even saying that the services held by Miyu were better. Nao couldn't tell, she had never attended one of Greer's services. She didn't believe in God. There was no such thing as a god who cared for people, not with all this shit going on in this world. If there was someone who cared about them, her Mom wouldn't be comatose and the rest of her family would still be alive. She often asked herself why she accepted Sister Yukariko's suggestion of helping out at all and why she was still doing it. Maybe she did it because it gave her the illusion of belonging somewhere, of being part of something, even if it was only for a few minutes per day.

÷÷÷÷÷

"Dear passengers, the express train from Tokyo, scheduled arrival time 16:50, is 15 minutes behind schedule." squawked it out of the speakers.

"I knew it!" said Mai, clenching her fists and stamping her foot. "Of course it has to be late when I'm waiting!"

She and Yuuichi were standing on the platform of the station near the school grounds.

Yuuichi smiled at Mai's outburst. He stepped behind her and gently embraced her. Then he leaned forward and gave her a peck on the cheek. "I'm sure you can wait another 15 minutes."

"But it's been so long... And now that he's coming back I just realise how much I missed him..." Mai leaned back. She turned her head and looked at the clock attached to of one of the columns supporting the roofing. She stared at its hands as if it could make them move faster. But they didn't do her the favour, in the contrary, they got even slower. Eventually she gave up and looked ahead. The warm rays of the afternoon sun caressed her skin. The air she breathed carried the faint scent of Yuuichi's aftershave. Maybe it wasn't so bad that the train was late. Mai closed her eyes and embraced the moment.

÷÷÷÷÷

"FUJINO!"

Shizuru closed her eyes, listening to the nearing footsteps outside. She felt like getting a headache. The last week had been hell. Why did Suzushiro Haruka, daughter of a building tycoon, have to move into a dorm? And WHY - of all people - did she have to be her roomie? Wasn't it already bad enough that she was attending the same university?

The door to their room opened with a swoosh and a raving Haruka stood in the frame. "Fujino!" she exclaimed, her index finger accusingly pointing towards Shizuru. "Fujino! I just opened the cupboard in the kitchen and got buried by an avalanche of _TEA_!" Haruka almost spat at the word 'tea'. "You can't cram the whole cupboard with your tea collection!"

"Haruka-san, I asked the others and they said it's ok."

"Well, you didn't ask _me_!"

"It was before you moved in."

"According to article two, paragraph five of the dorm constitution, all decisions regarding public goods in this dorm have to be made by a quorate assembly of all inhabitants. Has that been the case?"

_Huh?_ "No, but-"

"Then, by virtue of my position as dorm rep, I say we will have an assembly to discuss this matter and until then you get the tea out of the kitchen!"

Something in Shizuru's mind snapped. "FINE! FINE! I'll put it back here this evening! Satisfied?" she shouted.

"Here...? In our room...?" Haruka's left brow twitched.

"Where _else_!"

Haruka stood there, contemplating. "Maybe... maybe I can overlook this outrageous infringement. _This time!_" She turned on her heels and rushed out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

Shizuru suppressed the urge to shout after her that slamming the doors was prohibited according to article four, paragraph seven. She let herself fall back onto her bed and stared at the ceiling. _What was that all about?_

She sighed. Dealing with Haruka had been so much easier when it had only been for a relatively short, limited time per day. And Reito as demilitarised zone had just been priceless. He had always handled Haruka with an ease. But he was Prince Charming and Haruka didn't hold any grudges against him after all. She turned her head to the left and looked at her books. She wouldn't get anything done here. Shizuru decided go to the library to find some peace from her roomie. She packed books and pad into her bag. Then she picked up her almost empty thermos flask, she would need to go the kitchen and make new tea. It would be better to check if her tea was unharmed anyway.

÷÷÷÷÷

Natsuki bit her lower lip in concentration. She carefully placed whirl next to whirl, in nested circles from the center to the rim. She accomplished the task with only minor accidents in which a bit of cream dropped on the counter and once on the floor, after she had refilled the pastry bag. Then she took the bowl with the strawberries and put one on each of the whirls of cream.

_Done._ Natsuki stepped back and proudly looked at her work. Mai herself couldn't... well, actually, Mai could have done it better, but Mai had been running out of time and had entrusted her with the honourable task of decorating the cake for Takumi's welcome back party.

Mikoto got up from the table where she was doing her homework and moved towards the counter. "Mmmm... looks good...," she said, staring longingly at the cake.

"Hands off... you can have this." Natsuki gave her the bowl with the rest of the whipped cream.

Mikoto happily licked the bowl while Natsuki opened two cans of cocktail fruits and poured the contents into a pot. When she wanted to open a bottle of lemonade, it knocked at the door. She glanced at the clock. _Too early..._

÷÷÷÷÷

Akane was walking along the corridor, deep in thoughts. Should she talk with her about it or not? If not Mai, who else? Mai was virtually the only HiME she knew. And Midori. But Midori... no. She sighed. Eventually she had come to the door of Mai's room but not to a decision. She stood a while there, pondering, and then took a deep breath and knocked.

A moment later the door opened and Natsuki stood in the frame. She was wearing a yellow apron with huge pink spots. Mikoto was standing behind her, face covered by a blue plastic bowl.

"Hi."

"Hi... is Mai not here?"

"No, she and Yuuichi went to the station to pick up Takumi and Akira." Natsuki's eyes moved to the notepad which Akane nervously turned in her hands.

Akane noticed Natsuki's glance. "Oh... this is Mai's... she left it at work yesterday. I wanted to give it to her this morning but I forgot." She gave the notepad to Natsuki.

"Thanks, I'll tell her when she comes back."

Akane hesitated. Should she tell Natsuki? She wasn't even sure if she should tell anyone. The silhouette on the roof yesterday - that had probably just been her imagination. Nagi and Mashiro had returned to... to whereever they had come from. And the... thing... below the moon... she couldn't see it by day... and it was blue-ish... and kinda small. It was so not like the HiME Star. The others would probably laugh at her and say she was nuts. And they would be right.

Natsuki watched her expectantly.

No, she couldn't. Akane stammered a goodbye and walked away quickly. She sighed inwardly. She would watch the stars again this night.

÷÷÷÷÷

"Onee-chan! Onee-chan!" Takumi jumped out of the train and ran towards her.

"Takumi!" Mai started to run, too.

Takumi threw himself into her arms and Mai hugged him close.

"Takumi," she whispered.

"Onee-chan," he said, tears running down his cheeks. "I'm back."

"Welcome back," sobbed Mai.

Meanwhile, Yuuichi had gone to the train to help Akira with the luggage. Now they were slightly embarrassed standing with the suitcases next to the crying and hugging siblings.

"Ahem." Yuuichi eventually cleared his throat. "I hate to interrupt your cosy togetherness but shouldn't we be going?"

Mai and Takumi separated and goofily grinned at each other.

"Yes, yes," said Mai, turning around. "Let's go!"

÷÷÷÷÷

Her socks were red. They had been white when she had put them on.  
There were stains on her yukata. Not only stains, the whole hem was saturated, almost up to the hollows of the knee.  
She was standing in a puddle of blood.

The body of a woman was lying in front of her.  
She didn't wear shoes.  
The soles of her tights were worn through.  
Her black skirt was torn at the side.  
She was wearing a grey blouse. She had been wearing a grey blouse. Most of it was red now.  
A necklace was lying on the ground. Not far from where her head would have been.  
Where her head would have been if it wasn't lying half a meter away.  
Cut off strands of black hair, sticky with blood, on the ground next to it.  
Strands of black hair framing a face frozen in shock and horror.  
And eyes, wide open, showing too much white around an iris of green.  
The neck... it was a clean cut.  
When she used the blade of her bardiche, it was always a clean cut. The whip caused messier, frayed out wounds.

Distant screams rang in her ears. Kiyohime had found another nest.

She looked up. The sun had risen long ago but it was still dark. Black clouds of smoke rose from the ruins and intercepted most of the little amount of sunlight that had found its way through the thick, grey cloud cover.

She turned around. Dead bodies everywhere. Some of them were beheaded, others were torn in half, horizontally, vertically, diagonally, depending from which angle the whip had come.

She started to walk back, into the direction of the screams, trying not to step into something or to slip. The blood on the ground was mixed with the contents of lacerated organs.

The wind turned and filled her nose and mouth with the heavy stench of fresh blood, entrails and excrements. Sour fluid shot into her mouth. She bent, bardiche slipping out of her hand, and somehow managed not to vomit on her own feet. Little white dots appeared before her eyes as she eventually straightened up again. The jagged walls around her started to spin and her legs sagged.

_it's cold...  
strange taste...  
hard... wet ground...  
I'm soaked...  
rain..._

She slowly opened her eyes and instantly jumped up when she realised in what she was lying. She fought the dizziness from the sudden movement and then spat, trying to get rid of the revolting taste in her mouth. She unconsciously wiped her face to stare in disgust at the reddish brown dirt on her left hand a second later. When she wiped the hand on her Yukata, she noticed that her hair was also drenched with the hideous liquid from the ground. The rain washed it down, leaving itchy trails on her skin. With a reasonably clean part of her Yukata's right arm she wiped her face. After materialising her bardiche again, she walked on, breathing smoothly to avoid another wave of nausea. Her soaked clothes were unpleasantly clinging to her skin and the cold wind and rain made her shiver. She wondered how long she had been passed out. The sky was still dark and clouded, the sun invisible.

She stopped. Inmidst the narrow passage through the crumbled walls in front of her, she could see a body lying. It was the only passage within the range of vision. She could either take this one or she would have to go back and search for another way. Eventually, she tightened the grip around her bardiche and went towards the passageway.

Her steps slowed down when she came closer to the body. Was that man really dead? His posture looked a bit weird but he seemed to be uninjured ...except for the head. The side of his skull was caved in and... she averted her eyes and quickly moved past the body. He must have fallen to death when Kiyohime had crushed the building. She had seen other bodies like that, though they had all been partly buried under the debris.

She was a few steps away when a sudden pressure on her left shoulder made her spin around. A cry escaped her throat. The deformed, bloody face of that man was staring at her. She wanted to swing the bardiche in his direction but found her right hand to be empty. She felt herself grabbed by the shoulders. Panicking, she punched with full force at the face.

"OW!" Haruka rubbed her jaw. "I think you've dislocated it!" She wanted to go on but the rest of her scolding got stuck in her throat at the sight of Shizuru's unseeing eyes that went right through her. The girl's face was ashen and sweaty strands of hair were clinging to it. Her nightshirt was also soaked with sweat.

"You started tossing around in your bed, talking and screaming...," Haruka tried to explain but wasn't sure if her words reached Shizuru's ears. "You're soaked," she remarked helplessly. "It would be better if you took a shower and changed your clothes."

Shizuru nodded subtly and got up. Haruka watched her moving through the room as if in a trance, taking a shirt and underwear out of the wardrobe and disappearing into the bathroom. This was now the fourth time in not much more than a week that she had been woken up by the other girl's uneasy sleep, though it had never been as bad as this time. Haruka didn't know how to deal with it.

--

Shizuru leaned against the wall and let the hot water soak her. It wasn't rare that she had nightmares about the events of the carnival, but she had not been aware that she was talking in her sleep. It would be a problem if she woke Haruka by that more often. She reached out for the shower gel. It was almost empty - again. She used a lot of it lately but it never seemed to be enough to wash the blood off her skin. Her eyes wandered to the bottle of shampoo. She hesitated but eventually picked it up and poured the shampoo into her palm. She closed her eyes and inhaled the sweet scent of apples. It was the shampoo Natsuki always used. It was totally stupid to buy it, it wasn't the right one for her hair. Well, that wasn't the only reason why it was stupid. But it smelled so nice...

_"So, this is your room..." Natsuki dropped her backpack and looked around. "It's a bit smaller than the ones at Fuuka."_

_"It's ok. The kitchen's on the corridor, so there's more space in here."_

_"Who's your roomie?" Natsuki pointed to the vacant bed beside Shizuru's._

_"I don't know yet. It seems the girl who was supposed to share the room with me cancelled the contract last minute. But I guess someone will move in soon, the semester starts in a week after all." Shizuru noticed that Natsuki was yawning for the third time since she had arrived. "Tired?"_

_"Hm, it got a bit late yesterday. After you had left, I went through the stuff again. And I couldn't really sleep late this morning, Mai and Mikoto made such a noise. They went on a family trip."_

_"Family trip?"_

_"Yeah. Reito wanted to spend some quality time with his little sister. But Mikoto insisted that Mai had to come, too. And when Yuuichi heard of that, he declared that he'd also come along." Natsuki grinned. Then she sat down and emptied her backpack over the small table. She opened the math book and yawned again._

_"I'll make some tea with Guarana, that will help," said Shizuru._

_"Hm, ok."_

_Shizuru took her thermos flask and went off to the kitchen. The dorm had five floors, on each floor were 20 rooms and each 10 rooms shared one kitchen and one communal room. She opened the cupboard in which she had put her tea and rummaged for the one with added Guarana. She decided to make some sandwiches while the tea was brewing. She didn't have lunch and was slowly getting hungry. She wasn't sure about what to put on them, Natsuki would eat anything with mayo on it but unfortunately - luckily - she didn't have any. The tofu spread she had made yesterday would most likely not meet Natsuki's approval, red bean paste would have to do. _

_When Shizuru entered her room again, Natsuki had fallen asleep, upper part of her body half lying on the table, head resting on her crossed arms. Shizuru moved quietly to the table, put the thermos flask she had shortly clamped under her arm to open and close the door on the floor and the plate with the sandwiches on the table. Then she sat down next to Natsuki and watched her. She looked so especially adorable when she was sleeping. Maybe because her face was relaxed and totally freed from the frown that managed to creep onto her beautiful face way to often. Shizuru's hand slowly reached out and glided gently over Natsuki's forehead and through her hair. Natsuki's hair felt so soft between her fingers, almost like silk. She could smell the faint scent of apple shampoo that encompassed it. _

_Shizuru frowned and dropped the strand. What if Natsuki woke up? How would she possibly explain why she was holding a strand of her hair in her hand?  
"Natsuki... hey... wake up..." she said softly, gently nudging Natsuki's shoulder._

_Natsuki slowly opened her eyes and then abruptly straightened. Slightly panicking, her eyes darted to Shizuru, the open book on the table in front of her and back to Shizuru. "How long did I sleep?"_

_Shizuru smiled. "Only a few minutes... here, have some tea." She poured tea into a cup and placed it in front of Natsuki._

_Natsuki tore her hair in desperation. "I don't know, I'm looking at the page with all those equations and all those Greek symbols and my mind just shuts down..." _

"Hey, you still alive? I would like to sleep and it's kinda hard with the water running..."

Shizuru put the shampoo aside. "Sorry, I'm done in a minute," she shouted. She quickly finished showering and then took her time with drying, she wasn't so eager to get back to bed.

_"No more math today...," said Natsuki and stretched._

_It was already dark outside, they had been solving problems the whole afternoon and evening. Natsuki collected her stuff from the table and packed it into her backpack._

_"But I think I understand that curve sketching thing now."_

_Shizuru nodded. "You'll be fine. The problems in Sakomizu's tests usually aren't more difficult than the ones he gives as homework." She got up and followed Natsuki to the door._

_Natsuki had already her hand on the doorhandle and was going to say goodbye when Shizuru blurted out, "You can stay if you want." She pointed to the second bed. "It's not like she would show up today... I have a spare blanket and..." Her voice trailed off. She mentally kicked herself. Natsuki was avoiding her eyes, nervously kneading the grip of her backpack. "Sorry," she whispered. "Then... I'll come over tomorrow? Usual time?" she asked, trying to sound cheerful again. She failed._

_"No..." Natsuki looked at her and slowly shook her head. "No... I'll stay."_

When Shizuru came out of the bathroom, Haruka seemed to have fallen asleep again. She moved as quietly as she could towards her bed. She slid under the blanket and stared into the dark, afraid to close her eyes.

_"Shizuru?" came Natsuki's soft voice from her left._

_"Hm?"_

_"You can't sleep either?"_

_"No."_

_"Must be all that Guarana tea we drank..."_

_"Maybe..."_

_Natsuki shifted in her bed. "Do you mind if I turn on the light? If I can't sleep I may as well look into the math book again."_

_"No, I don't mind."_

_Shizuru heard Natsuki shift again and the soft click of the light switch. The light penetrated her closed eye lids. Natsuki's bare feet were almost inaudibly moving over the floor, away into the direction of the table and back again. The bed creaked slightly when Natsuki climbed into it. She opened the book with a sigh._

_Shizuru rolled onto her left side and rested her head on her hand. "You say if I shall explain something again, ok?"_

_"Um, thanks." A sheepish smile spread across Natsuki's face as she looked at her. "But to be honest, I'm partly reading it because I hope I'll fall asleep."_

_"Oh." Shizuru leaned back. She watched Natsuki for a while and then closed her eyes again._

--

_A dull sound jerked Shizuru out of her doze. She looked over to the other bed and a smile flickered across her face. Natsuki was sleeping, arm dangling out of the bed, the math book lying on the floor. Shizuru quietly got out of her bed. She picked up the book, smoothed the kinks out and brought it to the table. Then she went back and switched off the light. _

_"Sleep well," she whispered._

* * *

**AN:**  
GEP Golden Era Project (What, that's lame? ... Yeah... it is.)

And you may have noticed... I'm slow... I write with speed of snail. No, slower even. Sorry.


	3. Changes

First:  
Thanks for the reviews:) And no worries, I'll finish what I started. It'll just take some time... lots of time... ages... yeah... things constantly get in the way.

Second:  
The Silliness has infested large parts of this chapter. I don't know where it came from. Maybe outer space.

* * *

Chapter 3  
**Changes**

She had the feeling everyone was staring at her. That wasn't true, of course, there were a few people who didn't. It was the first time Akira was wearing a girl's uniform (in public) and the unfamiliar clothes made her feel insecure and... vulnerable. Had the way from the dorm to the school building always been so long? Diving into the shrubbery alongside the way seemed very tempting, but unfortunately, the greenway didn't extend into the classroom, she wouldn't be able to hide forever.

The other new thing that upset her was her roomie. Now that she was officially a girl, she wasn't allowed to stay in the boys' dorm anymore. Shortly before she and Takumi had left for America, she had already moved into a free room in the girl's building. But back then the room had been hers alone and today a distant day in the future. Her roomie was really...

"Akira-kun! Hey, Akira-kun! Wait!"

It was the voice Akira would recognise out of a million. She turned around to see Takumi running towards her, waving and smiling.

He stopped in front of her, slightly out of breath, and his smile became even more radiant. "Good morning, Akira-kun," he said happily.

"Morning," she replied shortly. She wanted to walk on when she noticed that he, too, was staring at her. "Stop looking at me like that!"

His cheeks turned slightly pink. "But you look good," he muttered.

Akira went red and quickly turned around to stride off. She froze when Takumi was gripping her hand. "What are you doing? People will stare at us!"

"I don't care," he answered quietly, his fingers tightly closing around hers.

Akira looked at him uncertainly, but Takumi just went on, pulling her along and not letting go until they had reached the classroom.

÷÷÷÷÷

Shiho made sure that the coast was clear and dived into the shrubbery. Then she moved over to the other side that was adjoining to the main path and waited.

There he was, coming down the way, school bag casually hanging over his shoulder, a bored expression on his face.  
And there she came, from the opposite direction.  
The most beautiful smile spread across Yuuichi's face as he greeted Mai and embraced her.

It hurt to see them together.  
It hurt to see them kiss.  
It hurt to see the look in his eyes and the expression on his face when he was with Mai.  
It hurt.

She knew she should let go but she couldn't. She couldn't fight the feeling that he was rightfully hers and that Mai had stolen him.

÷÷÷÷÷

Arika sprinted down the corridor, towards the entrance of the dorm. She was late for school. And that already on the third day. She had overslept and then her roomie had been blocking the bathroom. Her roomie was really weird... the first thing she had done after arriving yesterday was marking her territory with duck tape.

Arika left the building, jumped down the steps and was about to run down the path when she realised that she could save time by running across the greenway next to it. She slipped through a small opening in the hedge. Before her, others must have had the same idea because she found trails meandering through the bushes and trees. She quickly followed the trail that seemed to lead into the direction of the school.

When she had almost reached the opposite rim of the greenway, she caught sight of another person. A girl with a strange hairdo, dressed in a blue and white school uniform just like hers, was hiding behind a tree, back facing Arika. Intrigued, Arika sneaked closer. If she would have paid less attention to the girl and more to the ground, she had seen the big root sticking out. But she didn't and so she tripped over the root, letting out a surprised cry.

While falling, she saw the other girl spinning around as in slow motion, her four pink braids following the movement slightly delayed, strangely reminding Arika of a monkey drum.

Arika hit the ground with a thud.

"Ow..." She slowly sat up, dizzily rubbing her knee, and then examined the greenish brown smudges on her uniform. Great. Now she was not only late but also got her clothes dirty. She looked up to find the strange girl towering over her, an angry expression on her face.

"What are you doing here? Were you following me?" the girl barked at Arika.

"N-no," stammered Arika, surprised by the sudden aggressiveness. "I was just taking a short cut when I saw you-" She paused. "What exactly are _you_ doing here?"

"Gathering mushrooms."

Arika looked at the girl, then to her bag still leaning against the tree and back to the girl. She was definitely lying: she didn't have a basket for the mushrooms. "You're lying," said Arika.

The girl rolled her eyes. "Of course I am. What are you - stupid?" She didn't wait for an answer and turned around.

Arika watched how she picked up her bag and disappeared onto the path. "Grandma said stupid is as stupid does," she muttered.

Then she jumped up and followed the girl, she had almost forgotten that she should be in class by now.

÷÷÷÷÷

_John Smith hastily left the meeting room, heading towards his office, and answered the phone. "Yes."_

_"Ah, good that I catch you at this hour. Today's assembly was not over until an hour ago, so I couldn't get to your message earlier. Your assumption turned out to be true, there has indeed been a change of personnel. I just send you the details." _

_In the meantime, Smith had entered his office and was now taking a seat behind his desk while his dialog partner continued, "But that is not the reason for my call. Today's assembly was exceptionally long, but it was the last of its kind. The clans finally agreed upon a succession in leadership." _

_"And we thought another split was unavoidable."_

_"The sea's only calm on the surface, underneath, the water's still seething. But now that the question of leadership is settled, the internal problems are stepping into the background for the time being and they can fully concentrate on the upcoming task." _

_Smith sighed. "At least-" He was cut off by the sudden sound of the alarm sirens. Smith jumped out of his chair._

_"I'll contact you again," he heard from the phone before his dialogue partner hung up._

_Smith activated the small intercom device he wore around his wrist and opened a channel to security. "This is Smith. What happened?"_

_"We don't know yet. The alarm has been set off from Section B7. The Einherjer are on their way down."_

_Smith cursed inwardly. "Try to get a connection to Thomsen!" he shouted and ran out of his office._

_In the corridor, he almost crashed with Mr Lacombe._

_"What's going on?"_

_"I don't-" started Smith but was interrupted by a voice from his intercom._

_"Thomsen here."_

_"What happened?"_

_"We don't know."_

They still didn't know what had happened. What they knew was that someone, despite all security precautions, had entered the building, knocked out three people, stolen the cases and left without a trace. They didn't know how the intruder had gained access, doors and locks showed no signs of force whatsoever and, according to the logs, there had been no unusual access to the main doors. The records of the security cameras gave no further information on the events either. All cameras in Section B7 had failed, shortly before the raid must have taken place. Investigations showed that their CCD sensors had been destroyed, supposedly due to exposure to very bright light. The failure shouldn't have gone unnoticed, but it had.

Smith stared at the screen, rubbing his temples. He was writing a report on the incident. Or tried to.

_SEARRS Special Report No. XY, on the events of 12th April: "We're clueless."_

Smith laughed sarcastically and reached for the packet of cigarettes on his desk. _Empty._ He threw it across the room and congratulated himself for hitting the bin. Then he fished a new one out of his briefcase. His consumption had almost doubled in the last two days. He lighted a cigarette and inhaled.

It was ridiculous: the main intelligence department of SEARRS Japan was incapable of solving incidents that had happened within its own walls. It was alarming how easily security precautions had been bypassed. Another thing that troubled him was that the invaders must have had detailed information on the transport. That left the question why they didn't attack the car, which would have been a far easier target. The only explanation he could think of was that they wanted to display their power. But still... with that kind of power, an attack on the head quarters would have probably been possible and far more lucrative. Maybe this had just been a test run? But since then security precautions had been heightened, a second run might not be so easy.

But what was worst: they didn't know who was in possession of the cases now. First District, that was of course their first guess, but according to his contact, they had nothing to do with the recent incident. Though he didn't want to rule them out completely, the First District had many associates who acted upon their own will, there might still be a connection. And the more he thought about it, the more he was convinced that this had not been the doing of men but of... forces.

Smith put the cigarette stub into the ashtray and turned back to his screen.

÷÷÷÷÷

Takumi let his bag plump into the grass and sat down beside Akira. School was over and, how so many times before, they had not gone straight back to the dorms but into the large park of the academy. Akira pulled a block and some pencils out of her bag and started sketching. They had been sitting at the exact same spot before, last year, some time in autumn. Back then, the leaves of the trees they were sitting under had been dazzling in the most beautiful shades of red.

Takumi laid back, folding his arms under his head and closed his eyes. A few sun rays broke through the delicately green canopy of leaves above him, tickling his face, and a soft breeze came up, carrying the scent of the nearby flower beds, evoking memories of yesterday's evening.

«««

Yuuichi had won the battle over the luggage and was carrying both the suitcases, though Akira had insisted on taking at least their backpacks. Takumi and Mai were walking ahead and Mai was talking about the things that had happened during the last months. Things he already knew from letters and things that were new.

She told him how the renovation of the school buildings had advanced and lessons had started again. How classes had been put together because of the student fluctuation and how Natsuki had come into her class. How Yuuichi had started kendo again and was now leading the team after Takeda had graduated. About the sports meeting, and how their class had won the relay race with Natsuki outrunning all the other contestants in the last leg. About the graduation ceremony of the third-years. About the hanami they had all celebrated together here on the school grounds afterwards, and the karaoke party in the evening. About the trip to the mountains with Yuuichi, Mikoto and Reito, and that they should do it again some time, together with Takumi and Akira.

Eventually, they had come to the small place in front of the girl's dorm and Yuuichi put the suitcases down, saying, "Luggage redistribution."

"You probably want to bring your stuff to your rooms and freshen up a bit first... Could you come over to my room afterwards, let's say in half an hour?" asked Mai.

Takumi smiled, it was pretty obvious what this was about. "Sure," he said and then turned to Akira. "I'll come and pick you up before we go to Mai?"

Akira nodded and handed him his backpack.

Yuuichi wanted to take Takumi's case again, but the latter waved off. "I can do the last part alone, thanks for carrying it all the way."

"Uh... not for that," answered Yuuichi, scratching his head.

Mai pulled Takumi's and Akira's keys she had kept during their absence out of her pocket and gave them back.

Takumi then picked up his suitcase, saying, "See you in half an hour," and marched off.

Coming to the boy's dorm, he opened the entrance door and climbed up the stairs, into the second floor. There he walked down the corridor, stopping in front of his room, his eyes running over the name plate.

_Takeda Ryuichi  
Tokiha Takumi_

It would probably take some time to get used to seeing Ryu's name there. He had been sharing a room with his older brother, but since Masashi had graduated and moved out, he and Yuuichi had suggested that Takumi and Ryu could share a room from this term on.

Takumi opened the door and entered. It was a weird feeling to stand in his own room again after all this time. It looked quite different from when he had left. Several posters of bands Takumi didn't know were hanging above Ryu's bed, next to photos of the kendo team.

Takumi went over to his own bed and put suitcase and backpack down. He let himself fall onto the blanket. Ryu was apparently not here, but that wasn't really surprising, it was the usual training time. Takumi sighed. Mai had been talking all the way back home so that he had not found the opportunity to discuss things. Not that he actually wanted to, but he knew it would lead to discussions. Maybe later he would have the chance to bring it up.

He went to the window and opened it. Resting his crossed arms on the sill, he leaned out. The wind gently brushed his hair out of his face and he closed his eyes, breathing in the aromatic evening air. It smelled like spring.

He opened his eyes again and watched how the branches of the trees in front of the house were slightly swaying in the wind. When he had left, the trees had been bare, slumbering, waiting for spring's sun to kiss them awake again with its warm rays. Now they were proudly wearing their new, delicately green robes, rejoicing in the vernal season. They had awakened to new life, and so had he.

Takumi glanced at his watch: he still had plenty of time. He took a towel out of the wardrobe and went into the bathroom.

Freshly showered and dressed, he set off to pick up Akira, not forgetting to take the bag with the photos from the trip with him. He went over to the other building, and soon he was standing in front of her room and knocked at the door.

"Come in!" barked Akira from inside.

Takumi opened the door, entered and almost stumbled backwards out again.

PINK! Everything... PINK!

A pink rug on the floor, pink curtains in front of the windows, pink bedclothes on one of the beds, a pink tablecloth on the low table in front of its foot, and, in the kitchenette, pink dishtowels and oven gloves.

Akira was kneeling on the floor, back facing him. Beside her, a girl was standing, completely dressed in pink, too. Pink shirt and shorts, and on her feet, pink plush slippers. Twirling her long, auburn hair around her finger, she looked puzzled at him with bright, turquoise eyes.

Then a realising smile spread across her face. "Ah, you must be Takumi! Mikoto told me everything about you two!" she exclaimed, coming towards him.

_About you two?_

Akira turned around and looked into their direction and a blush shot up Takumi's cheeks.

"I'm Yumemiya Arika, nice to meet you," the girl in pink introduced herself.

"Tokiha Takumi. Nice to meet you, too."

Arika shortly looked back to Akira still crouching on the floor and then back to Takumi. "She didn't want to tell me what she's doing there," said Arika a bit helplessly.

Akira got up and now Takumi could clearly see a line of duck tape on the ground.

Akira pointed to the line and said to Arika, "This line divides the room into your side and my side. And there will be no pink on my side."

"But... but the windows are on your side," spluttered Arika, anxiously looking at the pink curtains.

"Exactly," said Akira, a triumphant grin on her lips.

"Why don't you like pink? It's such a nice colour. It's calming and relaxing and a catalyst for creativity. It's a combination of red and white and..."

Takumi could see that for Akira, pink was everything but calming and relaxing, for she was about to explode any second. He interrupted Arika's stream of words about the virtues of the colour pink by quickly saying, "Pink surely is a nice colour but other colours must have nice traits, too. Why don't you two continue this discussion tomorrow, we have to go now."

He grabbed Akira at the arm and pulled her out of the room.

Outside, Akira glowered at him and then tramped off.

Takumi hurried to catch up with her. "She seems to be quite nice," he remarked carefully.

Akira snorted and halted, looking at Takumi. "She's so... so... _different!_"

"It's not her fault." _That we can't share a room anymore._

"I know," answered Akira meekly and sighed. Then she walked on and Takumi followed.

"Ready for the not so suprising surprise party?" he asked when they were standing in front of Mai's room.

Akira nodded and he knocked.

Mikoto opened the door and a collective "Welcome back!" sounded. Everyone was here: Mai, Mikoto, Yuuichi, Natsuki, Chie and Aoi, they were all sitting and standing around the table, beaming at him and Akira.

Aoi came towards him and hugged him. "Good to see you," she said, "and you, too," moving on to Akira.

Hugs from Chie and Mikoto followed, and a handshake from Natsuki.

Then they were all standing in awkward silence until Mai told them to sit down and they gathered around the table.

Mai cut into the cake and soon everyone had a piece on the plate in front of him. But for Takumi, this was not just a piece of cake, it was more, a piece of home. This cake always came along with memories, happy memories mostly, for this was the cake their mom had always baked on their birthdays, and he and Mai had carried on the tradition. He took a mouthful and when the familiar taste pervaded his mouth, he suddenly realised just how much he had missed his sister, his friends, this place - everything.

Chie gazed at him and smiled. Later he thought that maybe she had noticed his slight tinge of melancholy and thus started to talk.

"So...," said Chie, "did Mai fill you in on all the stuff that happened while you were away?"

"Pretty much."

"I bet she didn't tell you the story with the cow."

"With the cow? No," laughed Takumi.

"What cow?" asked Mikoto.

"It all happened during the class trip before the holidays...," started Chie.

"Class trip? How come I know nothing about this?" asked Yuuichi surprised.

"Because you were walking ahead with the other guys, talking about sports and stuff," replied Mai.

"Ah..."

"It began when we were on our way back to the bus," continued Chie. "When Mai, Natsuki, Aoi and I fell behind the group because someone had to go into the bushes."

"Funny, how suddenly everyone had to go," remarked Mai.

"When we got back onto the path, the others were out of sight. We then kept on following the path and after some time, we came to a pasture with cows on it."

"And Mai was permanently glancing at the cows," said Aoi. "And then she went close to the fence and asked, 'That cow looks as if it's sleeping, isn't it?', pointing to one cow that was standing at some distance from the rest of the herd. And we were like 'Huh? Why do you ask?'. And then she was like 'I heard you could easily tip a cow when it's sleeping.'"

"Where in the world did you get that crap from?" asked Yuuichi, turning his head to Mai.

"Hmm... I think I read it somewhere on the internet. Hey, it sounded like a fun idea!"

"Fun we had indeed," grinned Aoi.

And Chie went on, "So Mai was all like 'Let's try tipping that cow!' and we couldn't put her off. We eventually agreed that two people would go and try tipping the cow while the other two would stay on the path to keep cave. Natsuki wanted to join Mai-"

"What? I didn't! She decided that I had to join her!" exclaimed Natsuki, her fork so abruptly swinging into Mai's direction that the cake was slipping onto the table.

"You said you wanted to," argued Mai.

"No, no, no! _I said_ I would never partake in such a foolish, childish and pointless undertaking," disagreed Natsuki while scraping the cake from the table. "That's exactly what I said," she affirmed and put the cake into her mouth.

"Maybe that's what your lips said, everything else said that you were secretly wishing I'd take you with me."

"I wasn't."

"She was." Chie took control over the conversation again. "So... since Natsuki wanted to join Mai-"

"Absolutely not true," muttered Natsuki.

"Aoi and I were the ones to stay on the path and look out for other hikers."

"We all went a bit further down the path to get more distance to the herd before Natsuki and Mai went through the fence. You should have seen them tiptoeing through the grass, grinning like idiots and constantly shoving each other with their elbows," laughed Aoi.

"Natsuki started it!"

"Just because Mai was giggling so loud that she would have wakened the cow!"

"How could I stay serious when you were kidding around the whole time!"

"I wasn't."

"You were making funny faces and weird gestures."

"I was communicating with hand signals," returned Natsuki. "I wasn't kidding around, she was. And at one point, we even had to stop because she was almost cracking up."

"You were so close to cracking up yourself!"

"When Mai - when we - had calmed down, we went on and eventually came close enough to the cow to see that it was really sleeping, and then-"

"And then Natsuki was making her hand signals again."

"To discuss our next moves."

"You pulled faces and stamped your foot in slow motion!"

"Because you were grinning again and I wanted you to stop!" defended Natsuki herself. "But all my efforts were in vain," she continued, "because Mai suddenly burst out laughing and the cow woke up."

"Ha," exclaimed Mai, "so it's all my fault again!"

"Of course," grinned Natsuki and Mai stuck her tongue out at her. Natsuki appeared entirely unperturbed and went on, "The cow then mooed and came towards us and we were backing away and-"

"It was so damn big and getting faster and then the other cows started mooing, too, and then a barking sounded from somewhere and Chie and Aoi were shouting something, and we totally panicked and just ran until we were safe back on the path."

"I didn't know Mai could run that fast," grinned Natsuki.

"Me neither," grinned Mai back.

"On the path, Chie and Aoi were shouting, 'Someone's coming,' and then we were all running until we couldn't anymore."

"But because of the long run we were able to catch up with the rest of the class shortly later."

"So you didn't find out if one can tip a cow when it's sleeping," said Mikoto a bit disappointed.

"No, we'll have to try again some other time," answered Mai.

"Will you take me along?"

"Sure."

"Promised?"

"Promised."

"Hm." Mikoto grinned happily and turned her attention back to the cake.

Then Takumi and Akira had to tell about their stay in America and Takumi took out the photos to hand them around. The first ones showed him, sometimes together with Akira, the ward, the hospital, also from the outside, then there were pictures of its nearer surroundings, especially of a small park in the neighbourhood in which Takumi and Akira had often taken a walk when Takumi had been allowed to go outside again.

When they were through, Chie stood up and got her bag, out of which she pulled several stacks of photos. "From the sports meeting, the graduation ceremony, the hanami and the karaoke party afterwards," she said while giving them around.

They all went through their stacks and passed them on when finished. Mai was sitting next to Takumi, sharing a stack with him and every now and then giving comments to the photos they were looking at. They had gone through a few stacks like that when the cycle got slowed down by Natsuki, who was rapt in looking at one picture.

"Natsuki?" asked Mai carefully after a while.

"Oh." Natsuki looked up, her face suddenly turning beetred. She quickly skimmed through the rest of the stack and passed it on to Mai. "I was finished anyway," she said and grabbed the next stack that was already lying on the table in front of her, concentratedly looking at the new photos.

Mai looked at Natsuki in bewilderment but then she shrugged and turned back to Takumi. After a few photos she laughed, exclaiming, "I can't believe you have pictures of that!"

"Hm?" Chie came to look at the photo. "Ah, that! Pure luck," she grinned.

Now the others gathered around Mai, too, to take a look at the photo in question. It had been taken during the graduation ceremony and showed the members of the student council and the executive board sitting in the front row and, by the looks of it, the former president was sleeping.

Mikoto leaned over Mai's shoulder, saying, "On the trip, Ani-ue told us that Kai- Shizuru-san fell asleep during the ceremony and Suzushiro had to wake her for her speech and was making a big fuss about it afterwards, saying that it was just another proof of Shizuru-san's inadequacy and incontinence."

Aoi laughed. "Really?"

Yuuichi chuckled. "She meant incompetence." He scratched his head. "But it _is_ a bit weird to sleep during your own graduation ceremony, especially when you're supposed to make a speech."

"She was probably very tired. No one's perfect, right?" said Natsuki irascibly, a weird look on her face.

Mai darted an angry glance at Yuuichi and he looked contrite, mumbling, "I just... I didn't... I..."

Natsuki was staring at the table, her face slightly red again, mumbling a weak "It's ok" in return.

"So... how's Reito-san doing by the way?" Chie quickly moved on to another topic.

"He's fine," answered Mikoto. "Now that his arm's fully healed, he's always doing stuff around the house and garden when he has the time. We'll go shopping together on Saturday," she added, "to get things for my room."

"Oh, you're moving in with your brother?" asked Takumi.

"No." Mikoto shook her head and pressed closer to Mai, wrapping her arms around her neck. "But I'll go there for the weekends."

"Reito-san's attending Fuuka University, right?"

"Yup."

"Many of this year's graduates enrolled there," said Mai thoughtfully.

"Well, why not?" asked Chie. "It offers a wide variety of courses, has an excellent reputation and very good connections to the industry. And it is nearby."

"And the sports teams play in the upper league," added Yuuichi.

"That's what interests you most?" asked Mai.

"No, but it's definitely a plus."

"Sugiura-sensei's also from there, right?" asked Aoi.

"Yes."

"Then Sagisawa-sensei went there, too... I wonder who else of the school's staff is from there?"

"Well, I know who's _not_ from there," started Natsuki.

"Ah, here we go again..." Mai rolled her eyes. "Ms Graceburt gave her extra homework because she was spacing out during her class, and now she's convinced that she's an evil witch and the devil incarnate."

"She is!" insisted Natsuki.

The others laughed and then they were talking about new and old teachers and the school year that was lying before them.

They talked and talked, but slowly the strains of the long journey took their toll and Takumi felt terribly tired. The others also started yawning one by one and they decided to call it a day. They all helped to tidy up and Yuuichi and Natsuki did the dishes.

When everyone said goodbye, Takumi quietly asked Mai if she could accompany him a bit and she nodded. Together with Chie, Aoi and Akira they went down the corridor and parted in the staircase. Outside the dorm, Takumi headed towards one of the benches along the path and sat down. Mai took a seat beside him and looked at him expectantly.

"I want to start with kendo," he began carefully.

It was just as he had predicted: Mai was looking at him with a mixture of surprise and concern.

"Kendo?" she asked.

"Kendo," he repeated.

"But-"

"But what?" flared Takumi up.

Mai shrugged helplessly. "Isn't that too-"

"Dangerous?" he exclaimed angrily.

"... too early," finished Mai quietly.

Takumi shook his head. "The doctors said I can slowly start doing sports."

"But why kendo?"

"Why not kendo?"

"I'm just wondering, because you never-" Mai fell silent.

"No, I never..." Takumi laughed sadly. "It would have been pointless, wouldn't it?"

How many times had he felt this pain in his chest, this longing ache, when watching his class mates capering around while he had been caged, not being able to be as free and jaunty as they were? How many times had he cursed this weak heart, this weak body of his?

He didn't know. Countless times.

Until he had shut it all away, had convinced himself that he didn't care anymore, had resigned himself to what he had thought was his fate. For way too long had he forgotten that he was the master of his own fate.

But he had been given a second chance, and this time, he was tightly, carefully, holding his fate in his hands. He wanted to never again give up so easily, he wanted to become stronger. For himself and for...

He was jerked out of his thoughts when Mai pulled him close. "You thought I wouldn't allow it," she whispered.

Takumi nodded.

Mai shook her head. "But I am worried."

"You don't have to worry about me anymore."

Mai laughed softly. "I don't think I can shake that off over night."

»»»

"Takumi... hey..." Akira nudged him and he slowly opened his eyes. "We have to have to go now, or we'll be late," she said.

Takumi sat up, yawning. "We?"

"I'm coming with you."

Takumi looked at the grass between his feet. "I... I don't want you to watch," he said quietly. "Maybe some time later... ok?" he asked, looking anxiously at her.

Akira wrinkled her brows but then slowly nodded. "Ok."

"Ok." Takumi smiled with relief and got up, brushing his trousers. He took his bag. "See you later."

He made a few steps, then turned around to wave to Akira before he finally set off to the gym.

÷÷÷÷÷

"Mai, it's not like I'm leaving the country. I'm not even leaving the city. We'll see each other everyday at school and stuff." Natsuki was struggling in Mai's tight embrace.

"I know," said Mai, not loosening her grip on Natsuki one tiny bit. "But I also know that I'll miss having you as a roomie."

With the painting and the laying of the new carpet, the renovation of Natsuki's apartment had finally been completed. During the week, she had bought new furniture and slowly started packing her things, so that she could move back in. It was surprising how much stuff had accumulated in her apartment over the last few years (and not been destroyed by Nao), she had even stored some of it in the dorm's cellar, because she had not known where else to put it when she had cleared the apartment for the renovation. Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning had been spent with getting her things from Mai's to her own place. Midori had recently bought a used Toyota Hi-Lux and agreed to act as truckage company - though in return she wanted Natsuki to help her with some research. She didn't say what kind of research, but it couldn't be that much work, could it?

"It was fun, wasn't it?" asked Mai.

"Yes." Natsuki smiled. "Yes, it was," she affirmed, returning the hug.

Living together with Mai and Mikoto had not always been easy. It had taken some time until they all had adjusted to the new living situation. But for Natsuki, the adjustment had been especially difficult. She had been living alone for so long that she was not used to the constant presence of other people around her. And it was crowded. The apartment was designed for two people and it had often become too apparent that three was just one too many. Sometimes it had all become too much and she had had to get out, taking long runs or trips with her motorbike to be alone for some time.

Natsuki's former daily routine had differed very much from the one of Mai and Mikoto. Maybe because she had not had something like a daily routine. Getting up early and going to school had been hard, but Mai had implacably made sure that Natsuki kept the resolutions she had made at the end of the festival and had dragged her into her own routine. And her circle of friends.

She recalled the many evenings Chie and Aoi had dropped by, and later also Yuuichi. They had played cards and other games, talked about this and that and all kinds of things or studied for the exams when the end of the school year had been just around the corner.

When she looked at the apartment today, it didn't seem to be that small anymore, and it was nice to have a place she could return to, knowing there would be someone around.

Mai's apartment had become a haven for her and the others, a place where they found a piece of the safety and normality they needed so bitterly after the madness of the past months.

Yes, the time here with Mai and Mikoto had been fun and she would forever treasure those weeks, but now that it was over, there was also a part of her that was looking forward to her own apartment.

÷÷÷÷÷

By the way they paused and then conspicuously inconspicuously started talking about some movie, Shizuru could tell they had been talking about her. She pretended not to notice and went to the counter of the dorm kitchen. She filled water into the kettle and switched it on. She rinsed her thermos flask in the sink and took tea and filter out of the cupboard. She took a spoon out of the drawer and filled some tea into the filter. The whole time she could feel Haruka's and Yukino's eyes in her back.

The water had boiled and the constrained conversation had stopped. An uneasy silence filled the kitchen. Shizuru took the flask, hung the filter in and added the water. Nothing more to do. The tea would have to brew for four minutes. It would have been weird if she had kept just standing there, so she walked over to the window and looked outside. There was nothing interesting out there, just the street below, cars passing by, a few pedestrians walking the pavement. But it was a way to avoid eye contact with the two girls sitting at the kitchen table.

An unequal pair caught her attention. A little girl with a huge mongrel dog came walking down the street. It was not clear who was leading whom: one moment, the little girl dragged the dog along, the next, she was dragged by the dog. Now the dog had taken the lead and almost pulled the girl into the hedge surrounding the neighbouring property. But the girl managed to get the dog away from the hedge and soon they disappeared around the corner.

Shizuru glanced at her watch: one minute left. She looked at the cloudy, steel-grey sky. It would propably start to rain soon.

Down below, the little girl and her dog came back into sight, now in company of a man. The girl was holding his hand, excitedly jumping up and down beside him and the dog was walking at heel, wiggling its tail like mad.

Shizuru reluctantly tore herself away from the view when the four minutes were over and went back to the counter. Out of the corner of her eye she could see that Haruka and Yukino were now communicating by gestures and meaningful looks. She took the filter out and put it into the waste bin, closed the flask and was about to leave the kitchen when Yukino got up.

"Erm, Shizuru-san?" she asked nervously.

Shizuru turned towards her.

"Would you like to sit down and have a piece of cake with us?" Yukino was pointing to the Sacher cake on the table.

Since the disaster of last year's baking contest, mastering the fine art of baking Sacher cake could be added to the long list of things Haruka was obsessed with. Shizuru had learnt in passing that Haruka and Yukino had often met on weekends to improve their baking skills. Now, after almost one year of practice... it still didn't look good.

Shizuru was pondering if she should accept the invitation or not. To be honest: she didn't want to. And it seemed as if Haruka didn't want her to either. She had folded her arms and was blankly staring ahead with a grumpy expression. Yukino almost anxiously looked at Shizuru, her fingers fidgeting with the too long arms of her sweatshirt. This was clearly her idea, making the first step in an attempt to sort things out between them. But if Yukino made a step towards her, dragging Haruka along, she could as well try and make a step towards them. She was tired of the endless quarrels with Haruka; this was like a peace-offering and she might not get a second one if she rejected this. And she wouldn't die from eating their cake - hopefully.

"Sure." Shizuru got herself plate and fork, pulled a chair from the table and sat down.

÷÷÷÷÷

Natsuki woke up in twilight and dizzily looked around. It took her a while to realise that she was in her own apartment, lying on her new couch. She had been doing homework and fallen asleep. She sat up and looked over the back of the couch, out of the window. Rain was heavily pouring down. A short while ago, the sun had been shining brightly, and now she felt as if she had awakened in a foreign world, dark and unpleasant. She stretched and reached for the floor lamp, blinking when its light spread across the room, chasing away the shadows.

Her stomach was rumbling and she glanced at the clock: it was around the time Mai usually made dinner. The little apartment would be filled with the smell of food cooking. Mikoto would be taking a bath now. Shortly before dinner would be ready, Mai would tell Mikoto to get out of the bathroom and Natsuki would put the bowls and chop sticks on the table. Then they would eat together and afterwards, Natsuki would help Mai washing up.

Natsuki pushed the feelings of melancholy that were threatening to overwhelm her away. _No singing the blues now._ She jumped off the couch and went into the small kitchen of her one room apartment.

One of the first things she had bought ahead was a month supply of her favourite instant ramen. It had been weeks since she had eaten one of those. Natsuki put on some water and while it was boiling, she took a bowl out of the cupboard. She opened a pack of ramen and put noodles and seasoning into the bowl. After pouring the boiling water over the noodles shortly later, she covered the bowl with a plate and carried it carefully to the small kitchen table. When she took the bottle of mayo out of the fridge, she couldn't help but grin. Mai thought nothing of Natsuki's habit of enhancing her food with the white sauce and had imposed a mayo embargo to which Natsuki had eventually succumbed after two futile attempts of smuggling a bottle into the apartment. Both times the bottle had gone straight into the custody of Aoi, which wouldn't have been that bad if her roomie's name hadn't been Nao...

«««

It was near the end of the last school year and lunch time. Natsuki, Mai, Aoi and Chie were sitting at one of the tables at the side of the school cafeteria's patio. The patio was almost empty because the weather was quite fresh and most people were eating inside. Natsuki was only half listening to her friends' conversation about some new karaoke bar, she had other things on her mind.

The conversation had paused.

"Say, Mai...," started Natsuki.

"Yes?"

"There's this large communal cellar in the dorm, right?"

"Yes, what about it?"

"Do you think I could put some of my stuff there? I've some things I just can't get stored anymore and I thought I could probably put them into the cellar for some time."

"I suppose so. We can go to the caretaker later and ask him."

"Thanks, that would be nice."

"No problem."

Natsuki had spent the last afternoons with clearing her apartment so that it could be renovated. It was a hell of a work. And all because of Nao.

Speak of the devil. The root of all evil was walking to the neighbouring table. Nao put her bowl of ramen onto the table and took a seat facing Natsuki. She noticed Natsuki's glare and waved friendly back. Then she rummaged in her bag and took out a plastic bottle which she put on display in front of the bowl while leaning the bag against the chair. Nao smiled at Natsuki, took the bottle again, opened it and poured the mayo over the ramen.

_That... THAT... _"THAT'S MINE!" Natsuki jumped up, sending her chair flying backwards and clattering onto the ground. She furiously rushed to the other table. "Give that to me, that's mine!"

"Oh really? I found it in my fridge."

"You know damn well that it belongs to me, you were there when Mai put it in! Now give it back!"

"No," said Nao, pouring more mayo into her bowl.

"You... you..." It took all of Natsuki's will power not to beat her up right on the spot. That and Mai and Chie restraining her arms.

They had hurried to the neighbouring table when Natsuki had started yelling and clenching her fists. Now they were grabbing her arms and trying to pull her away from Nao's table.

"Natsuki... just ignore her," said Mai.

But Natsuki wasn't listening, she was staring at Nao like a bull at the red cloth, completely ignoring her surroundings.

Meanwhile, Nao had started eating and was now noisily slurping the noodles. "Mmm.. delicious! I should use mayo more often. You surely don't mind if I take yours, right? Mommy has forbidden you to eat it anyway."

"That does it! You! Me! After school! Behind the gym!"

"Oh, a date?"

"Yes! Don't forget to bring flowers! For your grave!"

"Let's see..." Nao opened her cell phone. "Ah, today is rather inconvenient, how about next week?"

Natsuki had managed to free her right arm. "You want me to break your face right here in front of all people?" she growled, making a sweeping gesture over the almost empty patio. The few people there were gathering their belongings and hurrying inside the cafeteria.

"Ok ok... who could reject such a lovely invitation?" Nao typed onto her phone. "Date... Natsuki... after school... behind gym... flowers..." She looked up. "What flowers do you like?"

"AAAAAAAH!" Natsuki had freed herself and went for Nao.

Nao let her cell phone glide into her pocket while sideways getting off the chair, then grabbed the chair at the back and hurled it towards Natsuki before running off. Natsuki dodged the chair in the last second and then followed Nao, who had fled to the edge of the patio and was now leaping over the rail. Natsuki shortly stopped at the balustrade, she didn't like to blindly jump over or off things, you never knew what was waiting on the other side. Below on the path, Nao scrambled to her feet and glanced up to her, already dashing off when Natsuki swung herself over the rail.

She had caught up with Nao in no time and was now right behind her. But when she wanted to grab her, Nao darted to the side and disappeared into the greenway.

Natsuki followed Nao zigzagging around the bushes, breaking through narrow gaps between them, ducking under the trees' branches and jumping over lose branches and roots on the ground, always on her heels but not catching her, hunting her instead, wearing her down, waiting for the right moment to strike.

That moment came when they had reached the end of the greenway and Nao had to get back into the open, leaving the little safety the thicket provided her behind.

In a glimpse, Natsuki was at her level and grabbed her at the shoulder, trying to bring her to a halt. She sharply breathed out when Nao punched backwards, hitting her in the stomach. Anger flared up inside her and she violently shoved Nao in return.

Nao tripped and fell on her side, rolled over and was then lying on her back. She quickly drew up her legs in defence, turning to Natsuki. But Natsuki made no attempt to attack her, she just stood at a safe distance, watching her. Nao jumped up, keeping an eye on Natsuki, and then she was standing again, slightly trembling and trying to catch her breath.

Natsuki came closer. "Apologise and I'll let you go."

Nao gave out a laugh. She stepped forward and jabbed at Natsuki with her right fist. But too slow. Natsuki saw it coming and stepped back, swiftly redirecting Nao's fist past the right side of her face with her outstretched left hand which was directly followed by the back of her right hand against Nao's arm. In one fluid motion she turned her right hand and when its fingers closed around Nao's wrist, her left hand was already behind her elbow, pushing against it while sideways stepping forward, forcing Nao to her knees, and further, until she was lying face-planted on the ground. In a blink of an instant Natsuki had twisted her right arm on her back, and kneeled beside her, keeping her under control.

It was only then when Nao reacted and tried to free herself, buckling, but immediately stopped when Natsuki in response pushed her arm further upwards, increasing the tension in her shoulder.

"FUCK! IT HURTS!" Panic was too evident in Nao's voice.

"Good," said Natsuki but loosened her grip. "Say that you're sorry. And that you'll never touch my stuff again."

"I... I FUCKING WON'T!"

"I can wait. I'm not the one lying on the ground."

"Ah, here you are," a voice sounded.

Startled, Natsuki turned her head towards the direction of the voice. "Midori..."

Neither of them had noticed the arrival of Midori who was now standing at a one meter distance to them and didn't seem to be too fond of what she was seeing. Natsuki quickly let go of Nao and got out of her reach, still watching her carefully. Nao got up from the ground, trying to brush the dirt and dust off her uniform, glaring at Natsuki.

"I heard you two volunteered as excavation helpers," continued Midori.

Natsuki and Nao looked puzzled.

"Huh? What?" asked Nao.

"You two will come to an excavation with me and help out. Though we could all go to the student council instead, if that's what you prefer. You know the rules about fighting on the school grounds. Your choice."

Student council - Natsuki cringed at the thought. Fighting on the school grounds wasn't tolerated, of course, and a reprimand was like the last thing her file needed. Going to the student council would also mean that Shizuru got to know about this. She would probably find out anyway, she somehow always found out such stuff, but if this got into her file it would be far worse. Her attendance rate was way too low and something like this would just top it off. She was angry with herself, she shouldn't have let herself get provoked by Nao, shouldn't have started this fight, should have known better, should have known that it would only cause her problems and solve nothing.

"Blackmail!" uttered Nao angrily.

"Blackmail is such a nasty word," replied Midori, "I'd call it a chance."

Natsuki and Nao eventually agreed to the excavation work, what else could they do anyway?

Midori told them to change into more practical clothes that could get dirty and to meet her at her car in half an hour, she'd arrange things in the meantime and would excuse them from their afternoon classes.

--

When Natsuki arrived at the academy's car park, Midori was already waiting at her car, but Nao was nowhere to be seen. Her expression darkened. _She better show up._

Midori just smiled and said, "She still has a few minutes," as if she knew exactly what Natsuki was thinking.

Nao timely arrived five minutes after the half hour had elapsed. Just as Natsuki, she had changed into some old jeans and t-shirt.

"About time," growled Natsuki.

Midori didn't say a word about Nao's tardiness, just "Let's go, the door's unlocked." She opened the driver's door and climbed into the car.

Natsuki got in on the passenger's side and crawled onto the small seating bench next to the driver's seat, Nao followed.

Midori waited until they had strapped themselves in and then pulled out of the parking lot.

"What kind of excavation is this?" asked Natsuki when Midori drove onto the highway.

"Remains of a temple complex. The area was about to be developed last year, but then they found some stone fundaments and the work has been put on hold. Our university here was then entrusted with the supervision of the archaeological excavation. In the course of the excavation, we found a layer of ashes from which we can conclude that the temple complex was destroyed by fire in the late Heian Period. But we assume that the complex or at least some of the buildings are much older."

After half an hour, they left the highway again and shortly after, the road had led them to a small village. From there, they followed a dusty cast track through the fields and meadows. After a short time, the path was slightly ascending and the sparsely growing trees on the wayside became more and more numerous and eventually turned into a small forest. At the rim of the forest, the path met with a flattened and slightly gritted place. Many cars were standing on the makeshift car park and in the outmost corner were three latrines. All the shadowy places were already taken, so Midori had to park in the sun.

"So... here we are," announced Midori and unstrapped.

They got all out of the car and Midori instructed Natsuki and Nao to get the tools from the bed. The girls went to the rear end of the car and took the spades and pick-axes without much enthusiasm.

Natsuki wanted to ask if they should take the water bottles lying in the bed, too, but Midori's attention was drawn towards the young woman who came walking onto the place. She was dressed in trekking clothes and had short, brown hair. She came towards them, waving and smiling.

"Hey, Midori! Nice to see you."

"Kim! Good to see you, too. How's it going?"

"Fine, thanks. Oh, I read your thesis last week. 'Shinto Cults throughout Time and Their Influence on Contemporary Japanese History and Economics on the Example of the Local Cults of the Fuuka District'..." Kim slightly shook her head. "Who would have thought that something like this Ikusahime Festival existed, always here under our very eyes, yet unnoticed... And I heard you're going to be a teacher for another year?"

"Yeah, that's right... I'll be working on my diss though."

"More on religious cults?"

Midori nodded.

"Cool. Hm... I'd like to chat some more but I really gotta go now," said Kim after a glance at her watch. "I guess I'll see you around?"

"Yeah, I'll be coming more often the next days."

"Good," beamed Kim. "See you then."

Midori smiled. "Yeah, see you."

Kim got into a small, battered car and drove off, waving one last time to Midori.

Midori waved back and then took the water bottles from the bed of her car. "Ok, let's go." Midori walked into the direction Kim had come from and and Nao and Natsuki shouldered their tools and followed her down the path.

Soon, the forest to their left cleared and eventually revealed the view on the excavation site. Natsuki was staggered facing an area the size of a small shopping mall, littered with mostly squared trenches. And everywhere people could be seen working, digging the ground with spades and pick-axes.

A short way ahead to their right was another place on which several construction trailers were standing in the shadows of the surrounding trees. In front of the foremost trailer were two men reading a map the older one of them was holding. He was dressed in trekking clothes like most of the people here Natsuki had seen so far. The younger one was wearing draggled jeans and a t-shirt though. He looked up as he noticed their arrival, then smiled and said, "They're here," to the other one. Upon this, the latter looked into their direction, too, and folded up the map.

"Sugiura-kun!" he exclaimed, coming towards them, followed by the other man.

"Sasaki-sensei," returned Midori and slightly bowed.

The professor also bowed and then looked at Natsuki and Nao. "And you two must be the students Sugiura-kun told me about," he continued.

"Kuga Natsuki and Yuuki Nao," explained Midori, whereupon the girls said, "Nice to meet you," and bowed, too.

"Nice to meet you, my name is Sasaki," introduced the professor himself, bowing again. He pointed to the young man, who was standing beside him. "And this is-"

"Just call me Rei," interjected that one, grinning and casually waving.

"He will be working together with you," explained the professor and continued, "It's always a pleasure to meet young people who show such a keen interest in the history of their country. When Sugiura-kun called and said she'd bring two of her students with her I first thought you'd want a tour around the site, but I was told that you expressed the wish to actively participate in the excavation work. And of course we gladly respond to that wish, for there is probably no more exciting and rewarding task at an excavation than the digging itself - to uncover what has been buried by time, to retrieve what has sunk into oblivion, to see to what has been lying hidden in the dark, to touch what no one has touched for centuries! We recently started a new project, perfect for a first encounter with the wonders of archaeology, and I hope you will enjoy working on it."

The professor beamed at them as if he had just brought them the joyous message of them having won the lottery jackpot. Natsuki's eyes wandered from the professor to that Rei guy standing smirking next to him. Following Rei's gaze, she found the cause of his grin: Nao beside her made a face as if she had just gotten run over by a donkey cart.

Natsuki prayed that she had her facial features better under control, Midori obviously didn't tell the professor the real reason for their visit here. "Thank you for having us here, we really appreciate it and are grateful for this opportunity to learn more about your work here." She looked at the professor, unsure if her answer was satisfying or not. For a moment she thought that the corners of his mouth were slightly twitching but then it was gone. She must have been mistaken.

The professor nodded slightly and responded, "Then I will say goodbye now and entrust you into Sakamoto-kun's care."

"Could you carry these for the girls, please?" asked Midori, holding the water bottles towards Rei.

"Sure." Rei took the bottles and Midori turned to Nao and Natsuki. "I'll be working some way down there," she said, pointing over her back, "just in case something comes up. We'll see us in a few hours then."

Upon that, Midori and the professor, who had been waiting for her, were walking away, past the trailers, further down the path.

"Alright, ladies!" Just-call-me-Rei grinned enthusiastically. "Let's get into the adventures of digging. I see you brought your own tools. Good... you'll need them. Follow me!" Rei marched off and pointed with one of the water bottles to a path running along the side of the excavation area. "This way."

The path was slightly elevated, offering a better view on the area. From above, one could now see that inside most of the trenches, terrace-like structures had evolved due to the digging. Natsuki was walking behind Rei and Nao, every now and then throwing curious glances at the buzz of activities at the site. There were the many workers in the trenches who had instantly caught her eye when she had looked at the site earlier. But now she also noticed other groups of people. People with barrows were moving on some of the paths between the trenches, and here and there, she spotted people working with theodilites.

They came past a pit right below the path in which two men were working. They were cowering close to the ground, kneeling on small mats and scraping the soil with trowels. When they noticed the group on the path, they shortly looked up and waved.

Rei waved back and explained to Natsuki and Nao, "We found some pieces of a stone statue there, and now they're scraping some more shards out of the ground. We hope we'll find enough to reconstruct the statue."

In the meantime, they had almost come to the other end of the excavation area where the forest started again. "Now, we're almost there," said Rei and pointed ahead, "it's over there."

And really, shortly after, another trench was lying before them.

"Ours," exclaimed Rei and waved with one of the water bottles into the direction of the pit. Then he walked over to the trees and put the bottles down, in the shadows.

Meanwhile, Natsuki examined the pit. It was irregular shaped, but the width was probably four metres on average and it was about five times that long. The depth varied, too, at some places it seemed as if it was only a few palms deep, but many parts were much deeper. Through the length of the trench ran a broad band of cut stones slightly sticking out of the soil - some kind of wall.

Rei came back. "This is a part of the wall that once enclosed the complex. Or part of its remains, more precisely. As you can see, we did have some difficulties in uncovering this section... We're planning to excavate the whole wall one day to determine the exact course, but for now, we're concentrating on just this small part to gather information about the structure, used materials and such. And our task is to continue the digging here... Follow me."

The longitudinal trench walls were slanted here and there, like ramps, and they all walked down, to the excavated stonework. On the ground next to the wall a spade and a pick-axe were lying.

Rei picked up the pick-axe. "The soil here is very hard and we wouldn't get far with just spades... but that's what the pick-axes are for: to break and loosen the soil so that we can work with the spades. Like this..." He quickly drove the pick-axe several times into the ground, shattering the surface into chunks. He then exchanged the pick-axe with the spade and dug out the loosened soil and shoveled it into a big, black plastic bucket. "The soil goes into those buckets which you can empty in that barrow there. When the barrow's full, we bring the soil to the pile over there." He pointed to a pile of soil at the skirts of the wood. "But don't get too close to the wall so that you don't damage it, keep a few centimetres distance. We'll do the last bit later, with trowels and such. So... let's start then. You," he pointed to Nao, "will continue here, and you," looking to Natsuki and then going a few steps further along the wall while speaking, "will dig here. I'll be working on the other side of the wall." Rei then walked out of the pit and around to get back in from the other side.

Natsuki went to the spot Rei had told her to start at. She leaned the spade against the trench wall and then testingly drove the pick-axe in the ground next to the stones: the soil was as hard as a rock. With every strike, she felt a little of the impact in her arms and shoulders. Dust dispersed and settled everywhere: her clothes, her skin, her hair. The work was quite exertive and soon she was sweating. But she was glad to wear long trousers, because where the sweat mixed with the dirt, her skin started to itch slightly.

She didn't know how long she was digging now, it seemed like an eternity but was probably not even one hour. Sweat was running into her eye and she quickly wiped it on her shoulder. Looking over to Nao, green eyes glared at her out of a smudged face. Natsuki grinned and turned back to work, musing that her own face was probably just as dirty as Nao's.

Suddenly, the nasty sound of metal scraping on stone was heard and Natsuki and Rei almost simultaneously turned their heads, looking into Nao's direction.

"Hey, keep the wall intact!" shouted Rei half jokingly, half worriedly.

"That can't have been the wall," answered Nao, "I kept enough distance."

"Wait... I'll take a look at it."

Rei came over to their side of the wall and let Nao show him the spot where she had lastly dug. He kneeled down, gripping the pick-axe closely behind the head and carefully picked in the soil, using the pick-axe and his hand to remove the chunks. Eventually he got up again, a splintered part of a stone holding in his hand. "It seems as if this is just a quarried out and already broken stone from the wall," he said and put the stone piece onto the wall ledge. "Try to excavate it as well as possible, ok? You can put the parts on the wall here, I'll collect them later."

Nao nodded and they all got back to work.

But not long, and a man's voice was shouting, "Hey, Sakamoto! Could you come over here for a second?"

Natsuki looked up, into the direction of the call, and saw a man approaching them. She recognised in him one of the workers from the pit they had passed on their way here.

Rei put his spade down. "That won't take long, I think. You can do without me for a while, right?" he asked the girls.

Nao nodded. "Sure."

Rei climbed out of the pit and jogged over to the other man who was talking to him while they were leaving.

When they were out of sight, Nao put her pick-axe down and got out of the trench, too.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going?" shouted Natsuki.

"Just making a pause." Nao went to the rim of the forest and took one of the water bottles. Then she sat down leaning against a tree, opened the bottle and started drinking.

Natsuki suddenly noticed how thirsty she was herself and followed Nao's example. She sat down in the grass below the trees and wiped her hands on her jeans before taking her bottle and opening it. The water was cool and sparkled in her mouth, and she enjoyed the refreshing feeling as it ran down her dried out throat. The place beneath the trees was shadowy and a nice change to the trench, because even though the weather was rather chilly, directly in the sun, it was quite warm, especially when working. After quenching the first thirst, Natsuki relaxed, glad to be able to sit and do nothing. In the grass at her feet, a bug was crawling, and she watched how it made its way through the blades of grass until she lost sight of it again.

After a while, Natsuki put the bottle back and got up again. She stretched, made a few steps into the direction of the pit and then stopped, looking expectantly at Nao.

"What?" asked Nao.

"Let's get back to work."

Nao snorted. "You can work all you want, I'm staying right here."

Natsuki glared at her, not knowing how to respond. Eventually, she shrugged, "Do as you wish...," and turned around to leave.

"Stupid dog..."

"Pardon?" Natsuki turned back to Nao.

"You know...," uttered Nao, "you're always pretending to be so free and independent, acting so rebellious and badass and all, doing your lone wolf thing..." Nao snorted again. "You're no wolf, you're a _dog_ - a tame dog on a leash, wagging its tail and trying to please its master."

Natsuki stood baffled for a moment. Then she regained her speech and shot back. "And you? What about you? You think you're any different? If you give a shit about nothing, why are you here then, huh? And... and even if I was a dog, that would still be better than a spider that's trapped in its own web of viciousness!" With that, Natsuki left Nao behind and went back to the trench.

Shortly after, Nao brought herself to come back to work, too. Natsuki watched amused how she picked up her tool with a death defying expression and grumpily started hacking.

Nao noticed and lifted her head to look daggers at Natsuki. "What are you gawking at?"

Natsuki grinned. "Your friendly face."

"Mind your own shit!"

Natsuki grinned even more but got back to her own work.

They had been quietly working along for some time, when suddenly a shovel load of soil chunks painfully crackled against Natsuki's back.

She spinned around. "NAO!"

Nao looked at her innocently. "Something wrong?"

"Stop it!"

Natsuki turned back again, tightly gripping her pick-axe as she tried to control her rage.

A second salvo landed painfully stinging in her neck and the back of her head. Natsuki closed her eyes and inhaled deeply.

"It's no fun if you don't play along, really...," complained Nao.

Natsuki let go of the pick-axe and turned around. "Sto-"

At that very moment, Nao shoveled the third load into her direction.

Natsuki tried to turn away and raised her arms for protection, but too late, she couldn't prevent the soil chunks from hitting the left side of her face with full force. Her face felt as if it had been pierced with countless needles. Out of the diffuse pain, one single, burning pain originating from her left cheek bone emerged.

Nao was standing motionless, the spade limply in her hand. Her face looked pale, and she was staring at Natsuki with wide opened eyes.

Natsuki's hand slowly moved to her cheek bone, her fingertips feeling a longish cut running an inch beneath her eye, moist and stinging under the touch. It was as if her brain was paralysed, having trouble to understand what just had happened. Her eyes wandered to the many stone splinters Nao had excavated and put onto the wall, while her fingers were still feeling the bleeding wound, ignoring the pain. The thought that she would have to clean it surfaced.

Nao jumped out of her way as Natsuki approached and then walked past her, out of the trench and to the trees. There, Natsuki fished a tissue out of her pocket and moistened it with water from the bottle. She carefully swabbed the wound, and the tissue quickly turned light red and brown.

Nao had followed and watched her from a short distance. Now she came closer.

Natsuki backed off. "Stay away from me!"

Nao froze. She then pulled a tissue out of her pocket and held it to Natsuki. "Here."

Natsuki looked at her suspiciously.

"Just take it. It's clean."

Natsuki hesitated but eventually took the tissue.

Nao looked as if we wanted to say more, but then she turned around and went back to the trench.

Natsuki pressed the tissue against the bleeding wound and sat down in the grass, undetermined what to do.

Not long, and she saw Rei coming back to the trench. He shortly talked to Nao and then came towards her. "You're injured?" he shouted half way. "What happened?" he asked when he stood in front of her.

"Accident," answered Natsuki evasively.

"Accident...," repeated Rei sceptical. He crouched next to her. "Let me see." Natsuki lowered the tissue and Rei closely looked at her face. Then he got up again with a sigh. "Midori mentioned there might be some trouble, but something like this..." He pulled a mobile out of his pocket and dialled.

"It's Rei. ... You could call it that. ... Some kind of accident. ... Nothing too serious, I think, something like a cut, some scratches. ... No, just Natsuki. ... I don't know. ... Tanaka needed my help. ... That would be better. ... Hm. ... Ok. ... Bye."

Rei hung up and put his mobile away. "I want you to go back to the trailers, we have some dressing material there. Midori will come there, too."

Natsuki nodded and marched off.

Midori was already waiting in front of the construction trailers, her arms folded. Natsuki's steps slowed down the nearer she came. She somehow felt bad even though she was innocent. She expected questions or some kind of lecture, but Midori just silently looked at her. Then she said, "Come," and they went inside one of the trailers. In its interior was a small kitchenette at the side wall and a table at one end.

"You can wash your face there," said Midori, pointing to the sink.

Natsuki opened the tap and held her face under the stream of water, one hand holding back her hair. She carefully wiped her face with the other hand and gritted her teeth when the water made contact with her wounds.

When she had finished, Midori gave her a paper towel for drying and then told her to sit down on one of the chairs at the table.

Natsuki sat down and watched how Midori put on medical gloves she had taken out of a box standing on the table. Midori carefully took Natsuki's face with both hands and tilted it a bit towards her to examine it. Natsuki inhaled sharply when her fingers came near the cut and the skin there got slightly pulled apart.

"Luckily, it seems as if the cut's not so deep," said Midori eventually and let go of her. "I'll put some iodine for disinfection on it." She rummaged in the box, bringing out a small plastic bottle, gauze pads and Q-tips. With one of the pads she shortly swabbed the wound and then said, "Close your eyes," while dipping a Q-tip into the bottle.

Natsuki did so and felt how Midori lightly gripped her chin and, shortly after, the burning in the wound when she applied the iodine. Some of the tincture ran down her cheek and Midori wiped it off. Natsuki wanted to open her eyes again, but Midori said, "Not yet," and repeated the procedure.

"Done." Midori pressed a gauze pad onto the wound, saying, "Hold that." She then got tape out of the box and fixed the pad with it. "That should do."

She put everything back into the box and threw the used Q-tips and pads into the wastebin under the sink, followed by the gloves. After washing her hands, she seated herself opposite Natsuki.

"What happened?"

"I don't really know. She... she shovelled soil chunks into my direction, and then I got them into my face, and then I had a cut on my cheek. It was an accident... somehow. She had hit a stone while digging, and there were splinters... one of them must have been among or sticking in one of the soil chunks. That's the only explanation I have. I don't think she did it on purpose. Hitting me with the chunks, that, of course, but I don't think she wanted something like this to happen."

Midori sighed. "Why can't you two just get along?" she asked sadly.

"I don't know. She's so... so..."

"You were both HiME.

"That doesn't mean we're automatically best friends. Rather the contrary, don't you think?"

A shadow flitted across Midori's face.

"Sorry," mumbled Natsuki and stared at her hands.

Midori had always tried to bring them all together, to turn them into a team, even after the Carnival had been over. The HiME Rangers - Natsuki couldn't help but smile whenever she thought of that name.

In Midori's world, everyone was good, except for the ones that were evil. And those had the word 'villain' imprinted on their foreheads, for convenience.

But maybe _this_ world would be a far more unhomely place if it wasn't for people like Midori, who were always trying to see and bring out the good in others.

"I don't really want you to continue digging with that wound." Midori sighed again and glanced at her watch. "It's probably best to go home. Or do you want a tour around the site?"

Natsuki shook her head.

"I guess the same goes for Nao... I shortly have to check with some people and say goodbye. Wait here, ok?"

Midori stood up and went to the door.

"Midori?"

"Hm?"

"You told Rei why we're here?"

"Yes."

"The professor, too?"

"Yes." A little smile appeared on Midori's face.

Natsuki leaned back in the chair, folding her arms. "And all that wonders of archaeology talk was just show?"

Midori grinned. "Mostly," she answered and then left the trailer.

She came back after about a quarter-hour and they both went to the trench to pick up Nao and the tools.

The drive home passed silently and in a depressed mood. Back on the academy's parking site, they all got out of the car and went down the main path until they parted and said goodbye. Midori followed the way to the main building where her office was, and Natsuki and Nao took the path leading to the dorms.

They went inside the dorm and upstairs. Reaching Natsuki's floor, she headed towards the glass door behind which her corridor was.

"Hey..."

Natsuki stopped and turned back to Nao.

"I... I'm sorry. For that... and for taking your mayo." Nao looked at her nervously, waiting for an answer.

Natsuki knew she meant it, she'd never bother to apologise if she didn't truly mean it. She smiled slightly. "It's alright."

Nao relaxed and a faint smile played around her lips, too. "Ok... bye."

"Bye." Natsuki watched how Nao turned around and hurried up the stairs.

»»»

But that was the past. Now - NOW... Natsuki was grinning like a maniac as she poured some mayo into the bowl. She lifted the bowl to her mouth and carefully took a sip.

She wrinkled her brows and put the bowl down; in her memory it had tasted better. They hadn't changed the recipe, had they? She stirred the noodles around with her chop sticks. Maybe not enough mayo? That was it: because of the forced abstinence, she had lost her feeling for mayo. She added more mayo, stirred and tasted again. Still not good. Maybe a little more. Or a little more than a little.

_Too much._ Natsuki grimaced in disgust and put the chop sticks aside.

÷÷÷÷÷

People in bathrobes.  
People in white coats and scrubs.  
Broad, white corridors illuminated by the cold, sterile light that could even make the healthy sick when being exposed to it for too long.  
And over all hung the smell of death. Or maybe it was just the disinfectant.

Hospitals. How she hated them.

Nao ringed at the door to the coma unit and soon a nurse came.

She opened the door, smiling at Nao, saying, "Hello Nao-chan, how are you?" while stepping aside to let her in.

Nao entered the unit, inwardly flinching at the 'chan'. "Fine, thanks," she said automatically, trying to smile.

Heading towards the cloakroom to drop off her wet rain coat, the nurse accompanied her, engaging her in the usual small talk. After a few minutes talking about this week's unsettled weather, the nurse took her leave and Nao was finally allowed to go to her mother's room.

Then she was standing in the door frame, watching her mother's small looking figure lying in the bed. Her mother was a mere two metres away, yet out of reach.

The head of her bed was surrounded by the machines that were holding her body in this world. The ventilator that was breathing for her, the pump that was feeding her and the monitors reassuring everyone that a part of her was still here.

In the beginning, the sight of her mother being hooked up to all those machines had freaked her out like hell, but over time, it had become some weird kind of normality.

Nao finally entered the room and went around the bed, carefully observing her mom, searching. But her haggard face was motionless as always. A mask. Her body ever still, only her chest was rising and falling with the rhythm of the ventilator. "I'm back," whispered Nao and ran her hand through the thin hair. Soon it would be time for a haircut again.

Nao pulled the only chair to the bed, sat down and took her mother's bony hand in her own. Cold. Her mother's hand was always so cold.

÷÷÷÷÷

Natsuki picked up her cell phone from the table, leaned back in her couch, dialled and waited.

Shizuru answered after the second ring. "Natsuki? Hi."

"Hi."

"Finished moving?"

"Yep! All my stuff's here and I even unpacked most of the boxes."

"Let me guess... with unpacked you mean you scattered their contents all over the room?"

Natsuki looked guiltily at the mess around her. Shizuru just knew her too well. "Erm, listen, I'm calling because I want to invite you to my, um, moving back into my own apartment party on Saturday."

A moment of silence and then... Shizuru was softly laughing.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing."

"Can't I be giving a party once in a while?" grumbled Natsuki. Then, in a normal tone again, "Will you come?"

"Of course. What time?"

"It starts at seven, but..." Natsuki hesitated a moment. "Would it... could you... could you come earlier and help me with stuff?"

"Ok... so when?"

"Around four?"

"Hm."

"Ok."

"Shall I bring something?"

"Hmm... yourself?"

"I think I can do that."

Silence.

"How are things with Haruka?" asked Natsuki.

When Natsuki had called Shizuru a few days ago, she had sounded somewhat worn out, so Natsuki had asked if uni was stressing her, which she had affirmed. But soon Natsuki had been to find out the real cause of Shizuru's distress. When she had asked about her roomie, Natsuki had learned that it had somehow turned out to be Haruka. Not _a_ Haruka, but _the_ Haruka, Ex-President of the Executive Council of Fuuka Academy, who had declared Shizuru her number one rival. And to Natsuki's question why Shizuru didn't tell her, she had just answered that she didn't want to bother her and that it wasn't that much of a deal. But Natsuki knew too well it was. Haruka had tried to make Shizuru's life difficult from the very start and since that fateful night Natsuki wished so badly to forget things had only gotten worse. Of course, after the Festival, they had all apologised to each other and said they wouldn't hold any grudges, but some things just can't be forgiven and forgotten so easily. Natsuki knew that very well, too.

"Don't know... better... perhaps...," answered Shizuru.

"Is she there?"

"Hm."

"Ok... you can tell me on Saturday. Or maybe I call you before that? Or you call me?"

"Hm, I'll call you."

"Fine."

Silence.

"Then... until then?" asked Shizuru.

"Hm, till then. Bye."

"Bye."

Natsuki kept listening to the receiver, somehow she was hesitant to hang up. Shizuru had not hung up either. "You're still there," said Natsuki.

"And so are you," answered Shizuru slightly amused.

"Yeah, but now I'm hanging up."

"Bye."

"Bye."

"Natsuki?"

"Hm?"

"I think it's a nice idea to give a party."

"Hm."

"I'll call you tomorrow, ok?"

"Ok. Till then."

"Till then."

÷÷÷÷÷

Mikoto was listening into the darkness. Did Mai sleep already? She wanted nothing more than to crawl into Mai's bed and snuggle up to her. But with Natsuki gone there was no reason to sleep together in one bed anymore.

Her heart ached when she thought back to this afternoon when Mai had put clean linen on, saying cheerfully that each had her own bed again. Her own bed was empty and cold.

Mai's breathing had now been smooth and steady for a while. Mikoto got quietly out of her bed and sneaked over to Mai's. She shortly paused and listened once again to Mai's breathing before she lifted the bed cover a bit and crawled under it.

"Mikoto?" Mai turned around to her.

Mikoto froze.

"I can't sleep," she whispered after a while.

Mai didn't answer, but after a few seconds that seemed like an eternity to Mikoto, she put her arms around her, pulling her closer and Mikoto followed, shifting until she had found her usual sleeping position. She closed her eyes and let out a content sigh when she rested her head on Mai's chest.

Everything was alright. As long as Mai was hers during the nights, everything was alright.

Listening to Mai's steady breathing and heart beat, Mikoto slowly drifted away.

÷÷÷÷÷

"What do you want?" Mashiro glared at the grey-blue-haired boy who had suddenly appeared in her home.

Her 'home' - one of the many chambers in the vast vaults far below the academy. Along one of its walls, wooden shelves filled with books and scrolls were standing, and in its centre there was a wooden table with six chairs. It even had a large bench at the back which she used as bed when she needed some rest. She did not really need to _sleep_ to regenerate her powers but it was one of the things she had relished in her human days and thus continued to practise. Just as she didn't need light to see but often lighted the candles in the five armed candle holder standing on the table because their light created a more homelike atmosphere in the cold stone chamber.

Nagi came towards the chair she was sitting in. "Ah, how rude, Mashiro-chan. Aren't we friends? Can't I just drop by and say hello?" he asked, pouting. Then, shrugging, "But I guess you're too busy to talk with me..." The flickering light of the candles was dancing across Nagi's face, intensifying the demonic character of his grin as he watched her expectantly.

One should think 300 years would be enough time to know someone. Mashiro was absolutely not sure if she knew Nagi but she thought that she knew at least how to deal with him. Two could play this game.

"Why would I be busy?" she asked, attentively watching him.

"You don't know? Well, then I won't tell you, you'll find out soon enough..." Nagi turned around theatrically and walked towards the door of the chamber.

Mashiro would prefer him to leave but he might know something that could be useful to her. She flinched. Somehow it was always her to give in. "We don't have much time this time, do we?"

Nagi stopped and turned around. "No", he said, shaking his head thoughtfully and coming back.


	4. Awakening

Hm, this is a difficult chapter and I'm probably playing with fire here. I hope you'll stick with me till the end.

* * *

Chapter 4  
**Awakening**

The rays of the morning sun forced their way through the thick layers of fog clinging to the sides of the mountain range when a large convoy of military trucks was following the dirt road at its foot, leaving deep grooves in the by the last days' rain soggy made ground.

The further the convoy advanced into the mountains, the worse became the condition of the roads. Brushwood overgrowing the path and deep potholes were no scarcity, and Sean and his comrades were thouroughly joggled about the truck.

Among the passengers in the truck were also six children, five girls and one boy, all pale and unrested looking. Valkyries, how they called them, their key to the gates of Valhall. Of course he had heard about them, the numerous stories that were told among the troops, but it had not been until last week that he had actually seen one. And he had been surprised to learn that there were also boys among them. They would not be able to serve as Valkyries as such, but it was anticipated that they would prove themselves to be useful in other ways, and if it was only for reproductive purposes.

Valkyries, Valhall, the three worlds - a few years ago, he would have dismissed such things as nothing more than old, dusty legends and declared everyone taking them for real as idiots, lunatics. Today, he was one of them.

--

Once again, they drove through a deep pothole and Bridget's back painfully banged against the seating bench.

The longer the journey took the stronger grew the feeling of sickness that had befallen her yesterday. She felt a vague dizziness, her head was aching and her heart seemed to be out of rhythm, beating too fast, pushing her pulse too high. She looked at her hand: the veins were swollen and bulging out like thick, blue worms under her skin. She hid her hands in the sleeves of her jacket, hoping no one had noticed.

Fear's icy grip had taken hold of her heart again. Was this how the disease began? It couldn't be, not now, not when she was so close. No, they would have noticed something during the many examinations of the past days.

--

Kurt Thomsen was holding the jeep's steering wheel firmly with both hands and was concentratedly looking at the path and the vehicles in front of him when the road followed several sharp turns. At least the visibility had heightened during the drive, the fog and mist had almost completely cleared and now the sun was shining. It would be a nice day in spring.

He glanced at the clock on the dashboard and then turned his head towards his passenger. "Not much longer than an hour and we should be there."

Lilah Morgendorffer just nodded.

"Any news about the incident?" he asked after a while, trying again to start a conversation.

"You're the one working for intelligence, aren't you?" asked Lilah slightly amused.

"Even we don't always know everything," answered Kurt with a small smile.

"So I take it you're still in the dark regarding the whereabouts of the preparations?"

"Well... there are the usual suspects, of course... unfortunately, we have no confirmation that First District was involved. We probably have to get used to the idea that a new pawn might have entered the game." _Or an old one._

Lilah contemplatively looked at the road in front of them. "I wouldn't know how an ordinary human could pull off something like this."

"Do you think a HiME could?"

Lilah slightly tilted her head. "Hard to say," she answered slowly, "but it had to be someone with the power to control higher order matter."

"Hm." Kurt nodded in agreement. "And it's worrying to know that someone with already that great powers is now in possession of the serum. How difficult would you say it is to gather the constituents and the production process from the preparations?"

"Quite difficult. The molecular structure is very complex and even if you managed to map all its components, that doesn't necessarily enable you to replicate them." She smiled. "And certainly not if you don't possess the required raw materials."

"True." Kurt nodded vaguely. "Well," he added after a while, "at least we're not too far behind schedule, you managed to prepare six new doses pretty fast."

Lilah shook her head. "It takes only four to five days, so that was the usual time span. But what worries me is that we're slowly running out of resources."

"Oh, I heard Eclipse 2 is about to be finished?"

"Yes, but it will still take some time until we will get new probes."

"Hm..."

--

Their long journey finally ended on a ridge.

Bridget climbed out of the truck with the others and zipped up her jacket, shivering in the harsh wind sweeping across the ridge. She looked around. The vegetation up here was more sparsely than in the lower regions, consisting mostly of grass and moss, and isolated, crippled deciduous trees.

The tall, blonde man who had introduced himself to her and the others as Thomsen was coming towards her, carrying a padded bag in one hand, and instructed her to come with him. She followed him through the knee high grass, along a hardly visible trail leading down the slope, into a vale.

The wind blew unhindered across the shallow vale, swept through the blades of grass inducing almost wavelike movements, and it seemed to Bridget as if they were wading through a sea of grass. She watched the blades of grass swaying forth and back and a tinge of vertigo overcame her. She blinked, stopped and screwed up her eyes. The headache had become worse and was throbbing in her temples, her heart beating wildly. She opened her eyes again and inhaled deeply, yet it seemed as if not enough oxygen was reaching her lungs.

Thomsen had noticed that she wasn't following him anymore and turned around. "Everything ok? You look a bit pale."

"It's nothing, I'm ok," she lied and moved on with wobbly knees. whereupon Thomsen turned around again and walked on, too.

A vague numbness spread through Bridget's limbs and she felt strangely distant to her own body and everything around her. Her surroundings drifted into surreality. The movements of Thomsen who was tramping through the grass a few metres in front of her seemed oddly snatchy, like the ones of dancers in the strobe light.

Thomsen stopped after a while and looked around, his free hand akimbo. "This place here's ok. I'll set up the instruments over there," he motioned to his left, "where they won't hinder you. Please get prepared, so that you can begin with the ritual when we give the signal. Is everything clear so far or you you have any questions?" he asked finally.

Bridget shook her head. "No, everything's clear."

"Alright. Then good luck."

She watched how Thomsen went a few metres away to the left and trampled down the grass a bit before he pulled a metallic, box-shaped device out of the bag and carefully put it on the ground. The device had several antannae which he extended and then it looked as if he was pressing some buttons or the like. After that, he walked back the trail they had come from.

--

Sean climbed onto the bed of the truck and went to the front end. He loosened the belts securing the fuel containers that were kept there, took one in each hand and carried them to the rear end where one of his comrades received them. Then he went back and got two more. He shortly put them down at the edge of the bed while he was jumping down into the high grass and picked them up again to bring them to their destination point.

Completely assembled and ready for operation, it topped the other vehicles by far: the impressive howitzer they all jokingly called the space cannon. It was the prototype of a long range cannon that was designed for stationary use and was now mounted on the chassis of a truck for the test runs. And with it a generator that should provide the immense power that was needed to operate it.

As it had turned out, it had been failed to control the fill level of the generator's tank, and now the tank had to be filled with the fuel from the trucks' jerrycans.

When he reached the armed vehicle, his comrade was already busy with decanting the diesel fuel.

The cannon was mounted on the rear end of the truck's bed, the generator at the front end, right behind the driver's cab. In between, there was a more than one metre wide, not used area, where thick, black cables were meandering across the aluminium panelled ground, from the generator to the cannon.

Sean heaved the containers onto the bed there, and his comrade looked up and said, "Wait a sec, you can take the empty ones back." He lifted the fuel can a little higher to shake out the last drops, then he came over to Sean, screwing on the cap of the can, and put it next to the full ones.

"That one and then it's probably already enough, the tank's almost full," he noted, while picking up a new fuel container and starting to open it.

He turned around to go back to the generator but in that moment he snagged with his foot on one of the large screws protruding out of the metal panels and fell, dropping the container. The container thudded with a dull bang, tilted, and its contents gushed onto the ground.

"FUCK!" The other soldier scrambled back on his feet and picked up the fuel container. "Fucking shit!".

Sean had snapped out of his momentary paralysis and climbed onto the truck, watching the large puddle of fuel between the cables. He scratched his head. "How are we going to clean up this mess?"

"More important, how am I gonna get this shit out?" cursed the other one, unzipping his jacket whose one side was completely drenched with the fuel.

--

Kurt clambered the last part of the slope and joined Lilah. "All units are in position. A minor problem occurred with the ILC-R6, but this should be solved in a little while so that we can finally start."

"Problem?" Lilah asked worriedly.

"The tank of the generator was not sufficiently filled. It's better not to think of what could have happened if we hadn't noticed and the R6 had run out of power in the middle of operations. I ordered to fill the tank using the trucks' jerrycans, that shouldn't take too long."

Lilah nodded. "Even if we don't intend to put it to full use, it's better to be prepared."

Kurt let his eyes wander over the vale and the various squads positioned along its edges. "Yes, we are well prepared...," he said quietly, more to himself than to Lilah.

She watched him attentively from the side. "Can I ask you something?"

Kurt looked surprised. "Um, sure."

"You seem... to be reserved towards this operation."

"That's true," he admitted slowly.

"Why?"

"It has too much of an execution for my liking, that's all."

"It's necessary if we want to achieve the greater goal."

--

Bridget watched the green flare in the sky. Her signal.

Her heart was beating so wildly that she could feel it throughout her whole trembling body. But this was not the time for breaking down. All her life she had been waiting for a chance like this, she mustn't screw this up. She closed her eyes while inhaling deeply. No, she mustn't screw up and she wouldn't, she could do it. Again, she took a deep breath, then made a few steps forward and stretched her right arm horizontally away from her body, index and middle finger of her hand pointing out, forming a direct prolongation of her arm.

She closed her eyes again, concentrating, channelling the energy, feeling how it was pulsating in the fast rhythm of her heartbeat, weak in the beginning, then growing stronger, emerging, flowing, from her heart into her arm, her hand, her fingers, and further still.

When she opened her eyes, she could see the lambent, blue plasma flickering out of her fingertips.

She started walking widdershins in a large circle, with her fingers drawing a blue line into the air. The line was pulsating, wafting, reticulating, expanding more and more with every single step she took, eventually forming a large, blue glowing sphere around her, its one half visible above the ground, the other one hidden beneath.

Bridget moved into the centre of the sphere - her shield and shelter, guarding her and keeping her from all harm during the events that were lying up ahead.

It was now time to perform the actual ritual. She drew a blue circle on the ground, in a small distance to the walls of the sphere, and in the same direction as she had raised the sphere. After closing the circle, she continued with drawing a pentagram around her on the ground, so that its edges touched the walls of the sphere, beginning with the lower right edge, then up to the left edge, the right, down to the lower left, then up to the top and finally back to the lower right edge.

Now she could start writing the runes. Moving from one corner of the pentagram to the other, in the same order she had drawn them, she painted two convoluted hooks on the ground above each pentagram tip, on the ring between circle and sphere wall. It was the rune jera, a symbol for a good year, a good harvest. It would ensure the success of her ritual.

The ring around the pentagram was now divided into five segments. Into each of those segments, she wrote the runes laguz, ansuz, þurisaz and urisaz, forming the word laþu, a magic formula for evocations.

Now everything was prepared and she stepped back into the centre of the pentagram. She closed her eyes and spoke the incantation.

_Giants from the lands of frost and ice,  
And from the fiery heights,  
Spirits born of darkness, born of light,  
Hear my call and rise! _

_Remember the bond forged with blood,  
At the beginning of time, before the highest god,  
Remember and honour the ancient vow,  
Follow my call and tread the path woven for us long ago. _

_And when we meet again on the barren fields,  
We think of that day in the hall of shining shields.  
And as we perform the rite once more,  
Our souls and minds are linked again as written in the ancient lore. _

_You are my guardian, your power at my will,  
My life the pledge you will redeem,  
On the day the old world will end and the new one will arise. _

_In the honour of the sacred oath,  
Hear my call, come forth!_

With her eyes still closed, Bridget was waiting, letting her mind wander into the velvet darkness, fumbling, searching...

--

Lilah and Kurt watched attentively how Bridget was performing the ritual.

"Nothing seems to happen," said Kurt after a while and lowered his binoculars to look at Lilah.

Lilah vaguely shrugged and studied the screen of the surveillance system with furrowed brows. "There is a slight increase in radioactivity... though it shouldn't take that long... we were assuming a few seconds, not minutes." She bit on her lower lip, thinking. "Maybe we should wait a bit longer... and if there's still no change then, we abort and the next one shall take a turn."

Kurt nodded. "Ok, we'll wait a few minutes."

He returned to looking through his binoculars while Lilah made some notes on her palm pilot.

"There! Something's coming!" shouted Kurt suddenly.

Lilah looked up and she couldn't fight off the feeling of excitement that overcame her when she caught sight of the blue plasma cloud forming in the air above Bridget.

The cloud grew, incessantly changing its shape, becoming darker until it was black, slowly materialising into a large, curled up creature. Then black, leathery wings of bat unfolded, revealing a predatory beast from a distant past: a sabre-toothed tiger, darker than the night, with long fangs, white as snow, and eyes glowing like fire.

--

Bridget cried out and broke down on her knees when a sudden, sharp pain shot through her skull.

Now she was crouching on the ground, squirming in pain, pressing her hands against her head. It was as if her senses had doubled, flooding her brain with far more information than it could process. Her heart was racing and blood drained out from her nostrils, painfully forcing its way through the thin veins, dripping, dripping, faster and faster, crimson drops falling onto green grass.

The ground turned dark when a large shadow was cast on her and a roaring filled the air, droning in her ears: the sound of mighty wings. The draft was lashing across the blades of grass, forcing them to bow down.

Lifting her head and looking up with bloodshot eyes, Bridget first noticed the large cracks in the sphere, and then the enormous, deep black animal hovering above her.

The sabre-tooth was screaming, calling out to her, and her mind reached out, wanting to take away its confusion and fear. It turned its head towards her and as the huge, fiery red eyes locked with hers, she could feel how it touched her mind. She wanted to block it, but too late - her betrayal had been found out and the beast roared and attempted to break their link.

Bridget tried to gain control over the creature, but she was too weak, all she could do was binding it to this world. The beast was struggling, trying with all its might to break free and return to its realm, getting more and more angry with every passing second. It screamed and howled, emitting a very loud, high frequent sound, and she covered her ears with her hands. The frequency of the piercing sound was steadily rising and then it was as if it was fading away until she couldn't hear it anymore. And yet there was this immense pressure building up in her skull, becoming unbearable.

Suddenly, her sphere was shattering and in the same instant, there was a loud bang, followed by a stinging pain in her ears. She screamed out but she couldn't hear her scream, all there was, was a vague noise and the indescribable pain that was almost depriving her of her senses. And the voice in her head telling her that she would never be able to hear again.

She curled up, head sinking to the ground, her hands clutching at her hair, desperately fumbling for something to grab, searching for relief. Shaking and on the edge of syncope, she was clinging to the will of keeping the beast in this dimension.

--

Sean was gawping at the monster that had virtually appeared out of nowhere. Never before had he seen anything remotely like this and he was scared and fascinated at the same time.

The enormous cat-like creature was wriggling in the air as if it was trying to shake something off, its movements becoming more and more desperate while its roars were getting louder and must have been heard throughout the whole vale.

The foremost unit had received the order to attack and he watched them moving forward and opening fire, the purple beams of their laser guns flashing through the air.

The beast howled loudly when it got hit several times, but where the laser beams made contact with its fur and would have singed the flesh of every normal being, they just caused some kind of holes that rapidly closed again.

The creature that seemed to have been been taken by surprise at first, dived into the raving fast zigzag flight of bats, smoothly dodging the shots, and was now starting to attack, too. It was moving with an enthralling grace, almost as if it was dancing, and Sean couldn't help but think that it was beautiful, beautiful and dread. Dread preponderated when he watched horrified how the monstrous beast raged over the other unit like a force of nature unbound, battering down their lines within seconds.

The creature was hovering in the air again, its giant skull turning into his direction, and, despite the large distance, Sean had the impression that the glowing red eyes of the cat were looking right through him. It suddenly opened his mouth wide as if it was about to roar, but - unlike before - no sound was heard. Instead he felt how a slight tremor took hold of his body, grew stronger, first tingling and then almost tearing at his guts. His hair stood on end and cold sweat was running down his back.

As from far away the order to attack reached his ears and he automatically shouldered his gun. The others beside him did the same and started firing, but he only marginally noticed their shots, everything was in a haze.

The beast was now on target for them and Sean was rooted to the spot, unable to form a coherent thought, completely entranced by its deadly dance. The shots of the others didn't impact or even stop the animal at all and it came closer and closer still.

And then it was over them. The sky darkened, the air was filled with the roar of the wings, the fizzing sound of the lasers and the horrible screams of his comrades.

He felt the draught of the creature's wings lashing at him and then there was a sudden, dull whack against his head and the world sank in darkness.

--

Lilah and Kurt watched with horror as the events unfolded.

When Bridget's magic circle had been destroyed and she herself was crouching and squirming on the ground, Kurt had given the order to attack immediately.

But the weapons that were supposed to blow the beast to pieces had practically no effect on it. Shocked, they had witnessed how, in the blink of an eye, the tide had turned and the former hunters had become defenceless prey, left at the mercy of the beast's rage. The vast majority of the troops had been blotted out in no time, their sure-fire, planned down to the last detail mission turned into havoc.

"The R6! Why is no one operating the R6?" shouted Kurt agitatedly.

"You'll try to get someone on line who can operate the cannon, I'm contacting headquarters," commanded Lilah, who had regained her composure faster.

Kurt nodded and pulled his transceiver out of one of his jacket's pockets.

--

Sean was lying on his stomach and slowly regained consciousness. Pain was hammering in his head and one hand instinctively reached up to the back of his head, the pain source, immediately feeling the wetness and increase in pain when his fingers came in touch with the injury. But nothing was broken, his skull still intact.

He pushed himself up, creeping onto his knees, and then froze at the terrible sight that revealed itself when he looked around. They were all dead. The whole squad, dead, a conglomeration of mutilated bodies.

The wrath of the creature had descended upon them and left a nightmare in red. Dismayed, his eyes wandered over the torn open bodies, oozing entrails and ripped off limbs and his stomach rebelled, emptying itself on the grass and his hands as he jerked forward on all fours.

Trembling, he sat up again and wiped his hands on the clean grass and his trousers. With sweat drops on his forehead and heavily breathing, he finally scrambled to his feet.

Laser beams were flashing in the distance, on the other side of the vale, where the beast was razing another squad to the ground.

He turned around. The cannon was looming large over the ravaged battle ground. A wind came up, blowing across the vale, whispering words of vengeance into his ear.

He groggily walked towards the cannon, stumbled, got up again and walked on and on, step by step, trying not to look at the bloody remains of his comrades until he had reached the armed vehicle.

A maimed body was dangling from the bed of the truck, blood steadily dripping on the grass.

Sean pulled himself onto the bed, keeping as much distance to the corpse as possible. The pungent smell of the fuel that was still everywhere on the ground pricked in his nose. Carefully, so that he wouldn't slip, he went over to the generator, his eyes anxiously running over the control panel. He breathed with relief: the key was in the ignition. He reached for the key, turned it around and heard the engine starting.

It was only at that moment that his eyes fell back onto the dead body lying inmidst the puddle of fuel and the cables, and his heart stood still: yellow green sparks were buzzing from the end of one mangled cable. _SH-_

--

Lilah's head shot around when several explosions detonated in the distance. Stunned, she stared at the large fireballs, there, where a few seconds earlier some trucks and the cannon had been.

"The R6," said Kurt beside her with a throaty voice. "We're screwed. Dead. Deader than dead."

"We might still have a chance."

"You mean...?"

Lilah nodded. "Yes."

"Ok. Go!"

They grabbed their machine guns and scurried, jumped, raced down the hill, into the vale, towards Bridget, who was still crouching on the ground.

There was a reason why they had positioned themselves on exactly that slope. It was also the reason why they were equipped with light machine guns instead of laser guns like the rest of the troops.

Lilah was halfway down the hill when Kurt, who had fallen behind a few metres, was panically shouting, "It's heading for us!"

She slowed down a bit and turned her head for a moment, instantly spotting the beast, and the realisation that they wouldn't make it hit her.

"You go for the girl, I'll try to stop it!" shouted Kurt again.

_How do you want to stop it?_ thought Lilah, doubtfully shaking her head, but nevertheless speeding up again.

A few seconds later she heard the sound of his gun and she knew that there was no more time left. She stopped running, shouldered her automatic rifle, clicked the safety catch off and aimed for Bridget, who was still a few hundred metres away. She was trembling from the exhaustion and panic, and the first shots missed, but then she hit her target. Frantically, Lilah kept on pressing the trigger, watching Bridget's body twitch with every impact of the bullets, shot after shot, the roaring of the beast and Kurt's screams in her back.

And then it was over. It took her a few seconds to realise. The beast was gone. It was really gone. Their theory was right.

Kurt squirming on the ground, screaming of pain, snapped her out of her daze and she ran over to him.

She barely registered the several long cut-like wounds on his upper body, it got all shoved into the background by the bloody stump that had been his left leg only a minute ago.

He was raggedly breathing, his pain distorted, ashen face covered with sweat. His left arm was limply lying on the ground, and with the bloodstained fingers of his right hand, he was frenziedly fumbling at his belt buckle. When he noticed Lilah's presence, his eyes turned to her, pleading. "... belt...," he uttered under heavy breath.

She nodded and quickly kneeled down to his left, pushing his hand away from the now open belt, and grabbed it to pull it off.

He was trying to lift his hips to make it easier for her, but slumped almost immediately.

It had been enough for Lilah to get the belt off. Turning to the mutilated leg that had been severed shortly above the knee joint, she laid the belt over his thigh and then grabbed the fabric of his trousers to lift the remaining leg while loosely wrapping the belt around it. She let go of trousers and belt, took her knife out of her jacket's pocket, unfolded the blade and carefully cut the trouser leg open, on the upper side. Then she folded the knife, put it on the ground and reached for the belt again. After positioning it a hand above the stump's end and slackly strapping it, she located the artery on Kurt's inner thigh and then picked up the knife again with her free hand. She placed the knife between thigh and belt, pressing it hard against the artery, and then, without loosening the pressure on the knife, she tightly strapped the belt with her other hand and finally buckled it using both hands.

She leaned back, inhaling deeply. The tourniquet would stop most of the bleeding.

Kurt was lying completely still, eyes closed. He had lost consciousness. Lilah reached for his neck to feel his pulse, only then perceiving that her hands were covered in blood. She stared at them for a moment, resisting the initial urge to wipe them somewhere, and then continued and took his pulse. It was weak and fast. He wouldn't last much longer.

She wiped her hands as good as possible on her trousers and fumbled for her palm pilot, checking the time. It's been roughly a quarter hour since her emergency call to headquarters. They had assured immediate dispatch of strike fighters and rescue helicopters, they should be here soon. Though the fighters weren't needed anymore.

Taking out her transceiver, she let her eyes wander over the desolated vale. A picture of total devastation was all that remained of today's mission.

What had gone wrong? They had run simulations. They had calculated everything through. It hadn't been supposed to turn out this way.

* * *

_Natsuki:_ Phew, I'm so glad chapter four is over and I didn't even appear once!

_Shizuru:_ Ara, it's not over yet.

_Mai:_ You know, one time, when Natsuki was doing laundry, she...

_Natsuki:_ Shut up!

_Shizuru:_ But I want to hear it.

_Mai:_ ... and then she...

_Natsuki:_ It doesn't matter what you want! And you shut up already!

_Mai:_ ... and then the gnblllllll...

_Natsuki:_ Next time on Mai HiME Reloaded: the very tragic and very unexpected death of Mai!

* * *

**AN:**

Ha, it's over. Well, I hope this wasn't too boring, but it's part of the story and had to be told. HiME cast will be back next chapter.

You probably have a few questions by now, but I think I can say that they will be answered in later chapters. So I will only address the most urgent topics here.

_Magick:_ When Alyssa summoned that vampyre orphan thing in one of the episodes, she touched the ground and some purple, spinning pentagram with fancy magickal symbols appeared, so I thought that's the SEARRS way of making uh summoning orphans, but I didn't want to write 'Bridget touched the ground and then a pentagram appeared and then an orphan appeared', so I wrote the ritual thingy instead. But this was like the first and last ritual you'll see in here (no more crappy spells), and magick will be primarily used by the SEARRS Valkyries to summon the orphanslaves. (And they have to do it that way because they aren't HiME. So much for now.)  
About the runes I used in here... it's probably best if you look'em up in wikipedia. The word _laþu_ was found on several bracteates (coin-like amulets, you can look that up in wikipedia, too) and has an invocational function, namely to call the animal-shaped helpers of Odin. I found it fitting, so I used it. As already explained above, _jera_ means a good year in the sense of a good harvest, and the rune was also used ideographically.  
Hm... the whole pentagram thing (including the sphere wall) was supposed to look like this, just better: http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/1176/pentajq8.jpg   
All in all... yes, I'm totally raping the Norse lore and I am well aware that we're in Japan, but many ways lead to Rome. And Sunrise started it, I'm just going a bit further down that path (really only a bit).

_Childs, Orphans, Slaves:_ The creatures the SEARRS Valkyries can summon have both features of Orphans and Slaves, and while the Childs of the HiME were all mechas, the Orphans they fought all seemed to be organic; the creatures of the SEARRS Valkyries are organic, too - for now and for certain reasons. Artemis was not a Child that Alyssa had summoned but one that had been manufactured by SEARRS and been given to her - at least that's how I understood it and how it will be in this story.

Hm... what else... I decided that the sabre-tooth bat could not only emit ultrasound but also infrasound, the ultrasound was used on Bridget, the infrasound on Sean. Look up sonic weaponry on wikipedia (yeah, I love wikipedia).


End file.
